StoptheMinutemen

Immigrant Rights Agenda Report:Sunday, May 21, 2006

2006-05-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

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NOTE TO READER: Because of the volume of news on immigrant rights in recent months due to the great marches for immigrant rights inside Aztlan and despite the narrow gatekeepers of Man Stream Media the below is only a sampling of articles.

Check it out, write your own analyses and share with others who do not have Internet Access, including the functionally illiterate who cannot read or write and who you should help become literate. No one has a monopoly on truth, sharing is caring and the truth will help set us free!

For original format and any pictures go to the websource. Pass it on and keep marching forward towards total liberation! Adelante!
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IRA REPORT DIGEST:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/us/21border.html?ei=5094&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;en=9dfe5cfe38f2cb40&hp=&ex=1148270400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all
At Unforgiving Arizona-Mexico Border, Tide of Desperation Is Overwhelming
= Published: May 21, 2006
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http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=19413
Amendments Likely to be Voted On In Senate CIR Debate
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http://mediamatters.org/items/200605190007
ABC, CBS presented immigrant rights as a "passionate" and "personal" issue for Bush; ignored White House support of criminalization = Fri, May 19, 2006
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_forgoing_smugglers_2;_ylt=AhlF1rxTTzWu7LyuwveyemDlWMcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--
Migrants Forgo Smugglers to Enter U.S.= Friday, May 19, 2006 AM
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_border_fence_3
Mexico Condemns U.S Border Fence Plan = Fri May 19, 2006 AM
By JASON LANGE, Associated Press Writer
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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14257161p-15071928c.html
Immigration bill carries hefty price tag = Friday, May 19, 2006 AM
Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau
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http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/589/589_04_HagelMartinez.shtml
Hagel-Martinez divides the movement / “Our position is no compromise” = May 19, 2006 | Page 4
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http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/589/589_05_BlackPolitics.shtml
Immigrant rights and Black politics = May 19, 2006 | Page 5
KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR looks at why Black Democrats have been slow at best to embrace the rising movement for immigrant rights.
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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14256339p-15071364c.html
Senate sides with Bush = Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Vote favors a broad approach to immigration reform.
By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau
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http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3832180 Bush may not be able to deliver on immigration = 05/17/2006 08:20:29 AM PDT
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060517/pl_nm/usa_immigration_dc_24
Immigration bill moves forward By Joanne Kenen = May 17, 2006, 11:53 AM
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/17/MNGIIIT7UG1.DTL&type=politics
Some immigrant groups praise Bush = Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Others slam proposed guest-worker plan, stationing National Guard on border
By Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMMIGRATION_TXOL-?SITE=TXELP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Senate approves border fence, endorses citizenship chance = May 17, 9:58 PM EDT
By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p10s01-uspo.html
In pushing for immigration reform, Bush aims to shore up GOP base = May 17, 2006 edition
The hope is that getting it done will help his standing - even if the guest-worker plan irks some Republicans. = By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/16/MNGR0ISP6813.DTL
Immigrant rights groups protest across California = Tuesday, May 16, 2006
- Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
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http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3824635
Economic impact of illegal immigration still unclear = 05/15/2006 08:22:56 AM PDT
As debate resumes, both sides agree definitive study nearly impossible
By Alex Veiga, Associated Press
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0413/p08s02-comv.html
A Latino movement? Or just a moment? = The Monitor's View = April 13, 2006 edition
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LINKS, SUBJECTS AND ARTICLES:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/us/21border.html?ei=5094&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;en=9dfe5cfe38f2cb40&hp=&ex=1148270400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

At Unforgiving Arizona-Mexico Border, Tide of Desperation Is Overwhelming
= Sunday, May 21, 2006 By GINGER THOMPSON

Picture @ websource: Luis J. Jimenez for The New York Times
With a Border Patrol helicopter buzzing overhead, a Mexican father and son, Raúl and Samuel Calderón, tried to hide. After walking four days in desert heat, they were captured by the Border Patrol in Arizona.

ARIVACA, Ariz., May 18 — All the talk in Washington about putting walls and soldiers along the border with Mexico did not stop Miguel Espindola from trying to cross the most inhospitable part of it this week with his wife and two small children.

Pix @ websource: Luis J. Jimenez for The New York Times
Karla Espindola, left, 6, and brother, Miguelito, 7, illegal immigrants from Mexico, crossing the Arizona desert with a cousin who did not want to be identified. Some 464 migrants died last year on the same trip.
Luis J. Jimenez for The New York Times

Pix @ websource: Illegal immigrants from Mexico trekking through the Arizona desert. Hundreds of thousands cross the border, some in groups of up to 80.

Their 6-year-old daughter, Karla, clutched her mother's back pocket with one hand and a bottle of Gatorade with the other as the family set out across the Sonora Desert on Thursday. Miguelito, 7, lugged a backpack that seemed to weigh almost as much as he did.

"Yes, there is risk, but there is also need," said Mr. Espindola, explaining why he had brought his children on a journey that killed 464 immigrants last year, and a 3-year-old boy this week.

Looking out at the vast parched landscape ahead, Mr. Espindola, a coffee farmer, talked about the poverty he had left behind, and said: "Our damned government forces us to leave our country because it does not give us good salaries. The United States forces us to go this way."

Here at ground zero for the world's largest and longest wave of illegal migration, about the only thing that is clear is that easy answers do not apply. During a drive along a narrow highway that runs parallel to the line, it is hard to see how increased law enforcement and advanced technologies will stop an exodus made up predominantly of Mexicans willing to risk everything.

Meanwhile, it becomes easier to understand the conflicting attitudes about migrants that have not only strained relations between the United States and its neighbors to the south, but also tested America's identity as a melting pot.

In the last five years, Arizona has become the principal, and deadliest, gateway for illegal migrants. It accounts for nearly one-third of the 1.5 million people captured for illegally crossing the border last year, and nearly half the migrants who died, according to the United States Border Patrol.

Those figures have inspired competing responses.

After the 3-year-old boy was found dead this week in the desert, some local law enforcement authorities called for charging his mother, Edith Rodriguez Reyes, with reckless endangerment. The authorities at the Mexican consulate here said Ms. Rodriguez was a victim of smugglers and demanded that she be released. The mesquite-covered landscape here was a base for the Minuteman militias, who have threatened to take the law into their own hands in defense of America's southern border. It is also home to so-called border Samaritans, who scour the desert in search of migrants in distress to deliver water, medical attention and, sometimes, advice on how to avoid detention.

"This is a token deployment of unarmed and grossly inadequate numbers of National Guardsmen," a Minuteman spokeswoman, Connie Hair, told The Arizona Daily Star. Ms. Hair said the troops would be placed in the "same demoralizing position as the Border Patrol, outmanned and outgunned against international crime cartels."

Jim Walsh, a volunteer with the Samaritans, was not optimistic either, but for different reasons. "With this president and this Congress," he said, "it's not going to be too humane."

Worried about the enormous drain on taxpayers, voters here passed a ballot initiative intended to limit immigrants' access to public services. Meanwhile, economists like Marshall Vest at the University of Arizona said the illegal immigrants were an important source of labor for the booming construction and tourism industries that had helped make Arizona the second-fastest growing state, after Nevada.

When Mr. Bush deploys an estimated 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, it is expected that most will be sent here in an effort to seal off the desert. So this is likely to be the place where the successes and failures of the policy will unfold.

Arizona has been hurt by "bad immigration policies," said Laura Briggs, an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Arizona, and a member of the border Samaritans. "There is a long tradition of hospitality in the borderlands, and this rising death toll is stressing everybody out."

Those conflicting interests, and growing frustrations, come to life on Arivaca Road, which runs about 14 miles west of Interstate 19, on the way to Sasabe, Mexico.

Once a bucolic settlement of horse and cattle ranchers, the area around the highway has been overrun, according to residents, by illegal immigrants who move in groups of up to 80 at a time, and up to a thousand a day in the peak winter season. Residents must also contend with the buzz of Border Patrol agents in trucks and helicopters.

Frank Ormsby, a rancher, and his brother, Lloyd, said that after living for more than a decade in the middle of the buildup of the Border Patrol and the growing waves of immigrants, they were just plain sick of all of it. There are more backpacks littering the desert than rocks, they said, and enough money is being spent on equipment for the Border Patrol to rebuild New Orleans.

To them, illegal immigration is a huge business managed by powerful interests to make money and political careers. Among the beneficiaries, Frank Ormsby said, were immigrant smugglers, whose fortunes increased every time a new law enforcement effort was announced, and the Border Patrol, whose budget has increased fivefold in 10 years.

"There are so many agents they could stand hand-in-hand across the border and stop illegal immigrants if they really wanted to," said Mr. Ormsby from beneath a wide black cowboy hat. "The money we are spending on the Border Patrol, in gas, in equipment, in technology, what do we have to show for it? I see so much waste," he added. "Ray Charles could see it."

A couple miles down the road, two sunburned men, their clothes tattered and their lips severely chapped, look the image of needy. Raúl Calderón, 60, and his 22-year-old son Samuel, had been walking in the desert heat for four days.

Natives of the western Mexican state of Michoacán, they said they had been abandoned by the smuggler — known among immigrants here as "coyotes" — they had hired on the second day of their journey. On the third night, the men said, they lost track of the 10 other people traveling with them in the darkness. And by the fourth morning, they had run out of food and water.

"Our government has forgotten about us," the father said. Then nodding toward his son, he added, "Each generation stays as poor as the last."

Mr. Calderón said his native town of Churintzio had been nearly emptied by migration to the United States. He himself had gone back and forth across the border for much of the last two decades. But he said he had spent the last five years in Mexico, trying to start his own restaurant.
His son, on the other hand, had made enough money working in restaurants between San Antonio and Corpus Christi to return to Michoacán and build a home. Now the two of them were off to the United States again to seek more work, this time in California. Mr. Calderón said he had heard that President Bush "is going to give work permits, and so I have come to get one."

He would not, however, get one this day. Border Patrol helicopters buzzed overhead. A few minutes later came the trucks. And without much of an exchange, Mr. Calderón and his son were taken away.

"It's like saying we're going to stop crime," said a Border Patrol spokesman, Gustavo Soto, when asked whether the presence of the Guard would stop undocumented immigrants from coming. "It's hard to say that we will be able to stop all people from coming across the border. But we can achieve better control."

On the Mexican side of the border, Mexican immigration agents said they felt helpless in stopping the immigrants, even though the law prohibits citizens from leaving through unofficial ports.

Hundreds of people, carrying backpacks and gallon jugs of water, filed into the desert on Thursday. Among them, were Karla and Miguelito, neither one of them more than four feet tall.

In a speech cut short so that the migrants could be on their way before sundown, Mario López, an agent in Grupo Beta, a Mexican government agency that seeks to protect the migrants, advised the men, women and children about the dangers of their illegal journey and advised them of their rights in case they were apprehended by the Border Patrol. "This is a sad reality," he said. "We hate to see our people leaving this way. But what can we do, except wish them luck."

Bush Presses for Legislation

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) — President Bush on Saturday again encouraged the Senate to pass an immigration overhaul bill before its Memorial Day break. Mr. Bush used his weekly radio address to increase pressure on senators debating legislation that couples tighter border controls with a guest-worker program and gives a path to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.

"The House started the debate by passing an immigration bill," Mr. Bush said. "Now the Senate should act by the end of this month, so we can work out the differences between the two bills and Congress can pass a bill for me to sign into law."

Democrats, in their weekly radio address, criticized the immigration plan. "At a time when our country needed a detailed, long-term solution, we instead received short-term window dressing fixes," said Representative Michael M. Honda of California, who delivered the address.

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http://mediamatters.org/items/200605190007

ABC, CBS presented immigrant rights as a "passionate" and "personal" issue for Bush; ignored White House support of criminalization = Fri, May 19, 2006

Summary: In reporting on President Bush's visit to Arizona to promote his immigration reform proposals, ABC World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas and CBS White House correspondent Bill Plante claimed that Bush was "passionate" about "allowing migrants a chance" but completely ignored the fact that the White House reportedly supported a controversial immigration bill proposed by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) that would have made it a felony to be an illegal resident of the United States.

In reporting on President Bush's May 18 trip to Yuma, Arizona, to promote the immigration reform proposals he laid out in a May 15 speech, ABC World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas claimed that "it was clear he [Bush] is passionate about the very issue that has so many members of his party up in arms: allowing people now here illegally the chance to become American citizens." Similarly, CBS White House correspondent Bill Plante reported: "People who are close to the president say that allowing migrants a chance is a very personal issue for him." Vargas and Plante completely ignored, however, the fact that the White House -- in spite of Bush's "passion[]" for "allowing migrants a chance" -- reportedly supported controversial provisions of an immigration bill proposed by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), including a provision making it a criminal offense to be an illegal resident of the United States. Reports note that the White House even pushed to have that provision -- which makes illegal presence a felony -- lowered to a misdemeanor in order to facilitate criminal prosecutions of illegal immigrants.

From the May 18 broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight:

VARGAS: Good evening. We begin at one of the busiest illegal border crossings in the country. President Bush took his campaign for immigration reform to Yuma, Arizona, today. He stood at a place that has been a funnel for illegal immigrants and smugglers and made his case for a new border policy. He is proposing tougher security, including the deployment of more National Guard troops. But when he spoke to our reporter today, it was clear he is passionate about the very issue that has so many members of his own party up in arms: allowing people here now illegally the chance to become American citizens. In Yuma, our chief White House correspondent, Martha Raddatz, reports.

From the May 18 broadcast of CBS Evening News:

BUSH [video clip]: I can understand people being -- get excited about this issue. It's an issue that brings out emotions. People want our borders secure, but we've got to make sure that we treat people with respect and dignity.

PLANTE: People who are close to the president say that allowing migrants a chance is a very personal issue for him, dating back to his experiences as Governor of Texas, and that he'll keep working on it, even if it appears he can't win.

As Media Matters for America noted, however, Bush praised Sensenbrenner's bill when it passed the House on December 16, 2005. In a statement issued that day, Bush applauded the House "for passing a strong immigration reform bill" and urged "the Senate to take action on immigration reform so that I can sign a good bill into law." In a December 16, 2005, statement on the House floor, Sensenbrenner noted that the administration supported an amendment to the House bill to facilitate criminal prosecutions:

SENSENBRENNER: The administration subsequently requested the penalty for these crimes be lowered to 6 months. Making the first offense a felony, as the base bill would do, would require a grand jury indictment, a trial before a district court judge and a jury trial.

Also because it is a felony, the defendant would be able to get a lawyer at public expense if the defendant could not afford the lawyer. These requirements would mean that the government would seldom if ever actually use the new penalties. By leaving these offenses as misdemeanors, more prosecutions are likely to be brought against those aliens whose cases merit criminal prosecution.

For this reason, the amendment returns the sentence for illegal entry to its current 6 months and sets the penalty for unlawful presence at the same level.

Also, the Associated Press reported on May 17 that Sensenbrenner accused Bush of "turn[ing] his back on provisions of the House-passed bill," after advocating some of its more controversial features. According to the AP:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, who has pushed a tough border security bill through the House, accused President Bush on Wednesday of abandoning the legislation after asking for many of its provisions. "He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House," Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. "That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all."

Sensenbrenner chairs the House Judiciary Committee and would be the House's chief negotiator on any final immigration package for Bush's signature. He said it was the White House that had requested two controversial felony provisions in the bill the House passed last winter.

"We worked very closely with White House in the fall in putting together the border security bill that the House passed," he said. "... What we heard in November and December, he seems to be going in the opposite direction in May. That is really at the crux of this irritation," he said of Bush.
—S.S.M.
Post Comment at Website Source ~ PSL

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_forgoing_smugglers_2;_ylt=AhlF1rxTTzWu7LyuwveyemDlWMcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--

Migrants Forgo Smugglers to Enter U.S.= Friday, May 19, 2006 AM
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

TIJUANA, Mexico - Destitute and determined to sneak into the United States, Alvaro Garcia arrived at a Tijuana shelter after a 60-hour bus trip from southern Mexico to rest and inquire about the most porous spots along the border. Planning to cross by himself, he learned from other migrants about Nido de las Aguilas, a shantytown on the outskirts of Tijuana where rugged hills interrupt a metal fence dividing the United States from Mexico.

"I'm willing to do anything to get to the other side," Garcia said. "I just needed to know where to do it."

Migrants with money hire smugglers to lead them across the border, especially since 1994 when the United States increased its border patrols and began erecting fences. But some, like Garcia, lack the cash to pay fees of up to $2,500 and must rely on their own wits to get across.

The trip will likely become even more difficult next month, when the first of 6,000 National Guard troops promised by President Bush begin assisting Border Patrol agents. The construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing is a key part of the immigration bills being considered by Congress. The extra security could make sneaking into the United States riskier, especially for those trying to go it alone.

For lone migrants approaching the border, the first stop is usually a shelter where they can find partners for their journey. They learn from other crossers which hills and canyons to take, the best time of day to cross, the places to avoid and where they might hide from the U.S. Border Patrol. But hazards abound. Migrants crossing alone in remote areas often fall prey to bandits who hide in remote canyons, in the barren desert and along the Rio Grande riverbanks. Unfamiliar with the rough terrain, they must survive the desert's harsh heat during the day and biting cold at night.

The bodies of 2,881 migrants have been recovered by the U.S. Border Patrol since 1998, when the agency began keeping record, and many more remain missing. No official figures exist on how many of these were trying to sneak in on their own. But border experts say crossing without a smuggler raises the risk of dehydration or hypothermia after getting lost in the desert, or of drowning in the Rio Grande.

"Those who cross without knowing the area are more likely to drown because the river may seem calm. But it has proved otherwise many times," said Arturo Solis, president of the Center for Border Studies and Promotion of Human Rights in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

More than 1,200 bodies have been found floating in the Rio Grande near the northern state of Tamaulipas' border with Texas since 1994, Solis said. About half were never identified. Still, the risks are rarely a deterrent for migrants desperate to improve their economic situation and help their families.

Garcia, a 30-year-old construction worker who traveled 2,300 miles from southern Tabasco state to Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, said the $150 he made per week was hardly enough to support his wife and two children. He decided to head north after racking up a hospital debt of $3,500. "I was told I would have to bring plenty of water, that I'm going to walk a lot and that the journey is dangerous, but I have to at least try," he said.

Experts say migrants who try to sneak into the United States without a smuggler also are more likely to be caught by the U.S. Border Patrol. But then they're simply dropped off on the Mexican side where they quickly try again and again, a process that helps them eventually master the ropes of border crossing.

"They are caught and released, caught and released, and that's how they learn what they need to do to reach their destinies," said Jorge Bustamante, a senior researcher and former president of El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.

Jose Olivares, a farmer from the northern state of Zacatecas, crossed successfully on his own near Yuma, Ariz. Once on the U.S. side, he jumped on a freight train heading to Pico Rivera, in southeast Los Angeles County, where he soon found work. Olivares painted houses for $7 an hour until he was detained by police for drinking on the street and deported to Mexico. Waiting to have a warm meal at a migrant shelter, Olivares said he planned to travel to the Yuma border and cross again. "I don't have any money to pay for a smuggler, and I've already crossed on my own," he said. "I already know the way."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_border_fence_3

Mexico Condemns U.S Border Fence Plan = Fri May 19, 2006 AM
By JASON LANGE, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY - Mexico and four Central American nations condemned the U.S plan to build hundreds of miles of triple-layered fencing on its southern border, saying it would not stop illegal immigration. In a joint news conference in Mexico City late Thursday, the foreign ministers of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico said that building barriers was not the way to solve problems between neighboring nations.

"The position of Mexico and the other countries is that walls will not make a difference in terms of the solution to the migration problem," said Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved a proposal to build 370 miles of triple-layer fencing along parts of the 2,000-mile border separating the U.S. and Mexico. The Senate also agreed to give many illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship.

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Jorge Briz said major immigration reform in the United States was the only way to stop the wave of people heading northward. "All of us are looking for a comprehensive migratory regulation so that millions of Latin Americans can continue working in and supporting the United States economy," Briz said.

Earlier Thursday, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department sent a note to the U.S. State Department outlining the nation's concerns about the proposed barrier.

Honduran Foreign Minister Milton Jimenez said he expected several South American and Caribbean countries to join Mexico and the Central Americans in issuing a joint declaration on the matter soon.

In December, the U.S. House approved a bill to build a fence about twice as long as the one approved by the Senate. The House plan sparked a wave of criticism from Latin American leaders, with Mexican President Vicente Fox comparing such a barrier to the Berlin Wall.

Fox reiterated his criticisms on Thursday. "Building walls, constructing barriers on the border does not offer an efficient solution in a relationship of friends, neighbors and partners," Fox said in the border city of Tijuana. "We will go on defending the rights of our countrymen without rest or respite. With passion we will demand the full respect of their human rights."

On the border with Arizona, bedraggled migrants who had been turned back by the border patrol said that more fences would not keep them from crossing but only make smugglers charge more money for the trip.

"I had to leave my three children, walk for three days in the desert, and now I'm here with more debts than ever," said Edith Martinez, a 40-year-old from Oaxaca who walked back over the border bridge to the Mexican town of Nogales. "Now I have to work in the United States to pay my debts from the trip."
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Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report from Nogales. Ioan Grillo contributed to this report from Mexico City.

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14257161p-15071928c.html

Immigration bill carries hefty price tag = Friday, May 19, 2006 AM
Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Vote by vote, the cost of immigration reform keeps adding up.
There is new triple-layer fencing, running more than $3 million a mile. There are new vehicle barriers, at $1.3 million a mile. There are thousands of new Border Patrol agents, hired and trained at $170,000 each.

The immigration reform package that the Senate continued amending Thursday is, in short, a bill in more ways than one. Lawmakers intent on demonstrating their commitment to border security are loading it with programs requiring tens of billions of dollars in coming years.

"Yes, I am concerned that there won't be the funding available to meet the commitments in the bill," Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said. "These are tough budget times.

"The cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the president's tax cuts are squeezing dozens of programs, and this will be no exception."

All told, the Senate bill so far authorizes $25 billion in additional spending between 2007 and 2011, the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week. By 2016, the additional spending would total an eye-opening $66 billion.

The money would cover new roads, 10,000 detention beds and 370 miles of new fences. It would pay for unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles, state grants and more immigration attorneys and judges. It would fund port inspectors and Border Patrol agents.

The immigration bill authorizes this spending, but does not require it. Each future Congress will decide how much money to actually provide, and lawmakers and presidents don't always follow through with these nitty-gritty appropriations.

"The business of passing stuff and then not appropriating for it has really got to stop," Feinstein warned earlier this year.

Immigration reform costs, moreover, extend far beyond what Congress intends to spend. By creating new guest worker programs and welcoming undocumented immigrants, the Senate bill would also add millions of legal U.S. residents who would reap government benefits.

The new residents would require an estimated $54 billion in government services by 2016, the CBO calculated. This covers benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid and Social Security; it does not include some of the other potential social costs.

"Over the long term, we still have to see what kind of housing we have to provide," noted Graciela Martinez, program coordinator of the Visalia-based Proyecto Campesino.

New legal residents, though, would also be paying an estimated $66 billion during the same period in income taxes and fees. In many cases, moreover, undocumented workers are already paying taxes.

Also on Thursday, President Bush traveled to a blistering stretch of scrub land surrounding the nation's busiest Border Patrol station in Arizona and declared that he supported fencing some but not all of America's 1,950-mile border with Mexico. "It makes sense to use fencing along the border in key locations in order to do our job," Bush said at the headquarters of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol.

Bush has in the past indicated he is opposed to fencing, and White House officials were kept busy on Thursday trying to explain the change in the president's position. Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, said Bush supported a Senate amendment that would build the fence in areas often used by smugglers and illegal workers. "We don't think you fence off the entire border," Snow said. But, he added, "there are places when fences are appropriate."
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About the writer:
The Bee's Michael Doyle can be reached at (202) 383-0006 or mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com . The New York Times contributed to this report.

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http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/589/589_04_HagelMartinez.shtml

Hagel-Martinez divides the movement / “Our position is no compromise” = May 19, 2006 | Page 4

LEE SUSTAR examines the “compromise” immigration legislation taking shape in the Senate--and a debate among immigrant rights organizations about how to respond.

AS GEORGE W. Bush called for sending National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, a split emerged in the immigrant rights movement over so-called compromise legislation in the Senate.

The deal--named for its chief negotiators, Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.)--has been sharply criticized among activists because it divides undocumented immigrants into three legal categories and includes a guest-worker program demanded by Corporate America.

Yet when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced May 12 that the stalled legislation would be revived, several major immigrant organizations endorsed the bill, including the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

The National Immigration Forum (NIF)--whose top officers include the political director of the UNITE HERE union, Thomas Snyder--issued a statement which declared that the “Hagel-Martinez compromise includes the right architecture for real immigration reform.” The other main union on the NIF board, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), views Hagel-Martinez as “a step forward,” according to a union spokesperson.

By contrast, Nativo López, president of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) and a key organizer of mass marches in Los Angeles on March 25 and May 1, called the proposals “nothing less than a categorization of the immigrant workforce into a bantu apartheid system,” akin to the old racist system in South Africa. “[Immigrant workers] will languish in those categories for years with no absolute guarantee of legal status,” he told Socialist Worker.

Ana Avendaño, associate general counsel at the AFL-CIO and director of the labor federation’s immigrant worker program, called the three-tiered structure “punitive and inhuman. The fact that the national Latino organizations and the national immigrant rights organizations have signed on to it is very offensive.”

Because of this support for the legislation, however, Democratic Senate staffers will have the political cover to slam the door on critics of Hagel-Martinez, even as immigrant rights activists from around the U.S. come to Washington for a national day of lobbying May 17. “They’re saying, ‘You can lobby all you want, but the deal is done,’” Avendañao said in an interview.

She pointed out that 85 percent of immigrant children live in mixed households with citizens and non-citizens--and that many of the low-wage workers who would have to travel to the border to apply for legal status under Hagel-Martinez would lose their jobs. “The bottom line is that they need to construct a punitive program that doesn’t sound like amnesty” to get the bill through Congress, Avendaño said.

UNDER HAGEL-Martinez, undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. more than five years could apply to become citizens after six years, paying fines and any back taxes, and learning English.

Those in the U.S. more than two years but less than five could apply for status as guest workers, but only after exiting and re-entering the U.S. at a port of entry--a setup, critics say, for instant deportations.

The rest of the undocumented immigrants--more than 2 million people who have come to the U.S. in the last two years--would be forced to leave and could only apply to return under the guest-worker program.

Hagel-Martinez could also put immigrants at risk for deportation if they used false documentation to obtain a job, immigration lawyers say.

And as Hagel and Martinez boasted in a recent article, their proposals would sharply increase enforcement. “The bill adds nearly 15,000 new Border Patrol agents over the next six years,” they wrote. “It dramatically increases the number of immigration investigators (1,000), immigration inspectors (1,250) and customs inspectors (1,000) as well. And it authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to make important improvements and additions to border infrastructure necessary to secure the border.”

Moreover, both the House and Senate bills contain numerous punitive measures, as Dori Cahn reported on the New American Media Web site. If passed, they would lead to deportation of accused gang members who were not convicted of any crime, expand the numbers of “aggravated felonies” that would launch deportation proceedings, restrict the right to naturalization based on past conduct, and otherwise limit access to citizenship.

The three-tiered structure of Hagel-Martinez led to opposition from organizations and unions--including the Laborers International Union--that had earlier supported a guest worker plan in a proposal by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). “[Hagel-Martinez] is not good enough for us,” Yanira Merino, the Laborers policy director on immigration, said in an interview. “It still leaves a good number of immigrants without a path to citizenship.”

Nevertheless, SEIU--with the largest number of immigrants of any union--views Hagel-Martinez as a “step forward,” according to union spokesperson Avril Smith.

SEIU, along with the Laborers and UNITE HERE, are part of the Change to Win coalition, a group of unions that split from the AFL-CIO last summer. Now, however, UNITE HERE and SEIU are apparently alone among labor organizations in backing Hagel-Martinez.

SEIU defends its position on the basis that Hagel-Martinez departs from the enforcement-only provisions of HR 4437, proposed legislation passed by the House last December that would make felons of the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S.

SEIU officials are critical of the Hagel-Martinez proposal that would require all those who have come to the U.S. in the last two years to leave the country. “It’s one of the things we would like to see improved, obviously,” Smith said. “We think that all people who are contributing to the economy should have the right to earn citizenship.”

Yet having backed the guest-worker provisions of the McCain-Kennedy bill, SEIU is prepared to accept Hagel-Martinez as a framework for immigration reform. “We think that we need to get control of our borders, and deal with the reality that workers are going to continue to come to this country,” Smith said. “We need to create a safe, controlled and orderly process for that to happen.”

By taking this position, SEIU is creating a split in the immigrant rights movement, says MAPA’s Nativo López.

The NIF, National Council of La Raza, LULAC and SEIU are playing a “dangerous game with the Democrats,” López said. “This game of ‘improving’ Hagel-Martinez is a betrayal on its face, because any compromise based on it would mean dividing families, supporting enforcement measures and undermining the rights of all immigrant workers. We take the position of no compromise, and no division of our families. Better no immigration reform bill this year than this bill.”

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http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-1/589/589_05_BlackPolitics.shtml

Immigrant rights and Black politics = May 19, 2006 | Page 5

KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR looks at why Black Democrats have been slow at best to embrace the rising movement for immigrant rights.

“We have a huge problem. This immigration problem is a crisis, and we can’t get around it anymore. It has got to be dealt with...We have not done what we should have done to secure the borders.”

“Let me say at the outset that...a strong border security policy is an absolute necessity for this nation.”

“They [immigrants] have to acknowledge that breaking our immigration laws was wrong. They must pay a penalty and abide by all of our laws going forward.”

WHO MADE these comments? Was it a right-wing Republican congressman? A hate-monger from the racist Minuteman Project?

No, these statements came from liberal darlings of the Democratic Party--Reps. Maxine Waters and John Conyers, and Sen. Barack Obama, respectively--during various interviews about how to deal with the so-called immigration “problem.”

In fact, these comments reflect what has been a generally cool reception to this new civil rights movement for immigrant rights from the old guard of the last civil rights movement. From the NAACP to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)--the self-annointed “conscience of the Congress”--a number of Black political leaders have been notably lukewarm to the new movement.

In fact, Black Democrat and CBC member Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee actually voted for the racist HR 4437 bill--legislation sponsored by Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner that would brand undocumented immigrants as felons.

When the NAACP finally came out with a statement in support of immigrant rights at the end of March, the organization firmly planted itself on the right wing of the movement by supporting an earned “path to legal permanent residency and citizenship for college-age students.”

What’s behind the Black Democrats’ tepid response to the new movement? There are three explanations.

First, the Democratic Party as a whole has radically shifted to the right over the last 20 years. In the name of “electability,” the Democrats have pandered and acquiesced to the right--all the while abandoning their base--on the key political and social issues of the day: abortion, the death penalty and the criminal justice system, gay marriage, health care, education and, now, immigrant rights.

The Black Democrats are no different. Moreover, they have an additional role to play--helping to patch up the reputation of the party in the Black community and within the broad left, when the Democrats line up with Republicans on important political issues.

Second, a number of Black elected officials feel politically threatened by the rising number of Latinos moving into their districts. As Latinos have displaced African Americans as the largest racial minority in the U.S., there is a fear among Black politicians that the rising political clout of Latinos could erode into their electoral base.

Lastly, many Black elected officials are tailing the genuine anxiety that a number of ordinary Blacks have expressed about low wages and job losses, which they attribute to the presence of undocumented workers.

The media has embellished the idea that Blacks are opposed to immigrant rights--exemplified by major newspapers in both Los Angeles and Chicago focusing on the miniscule handful of Blacks working with the racist Minutemen. In fact, in a recently published poll in California--a state at the heart of the immigration debate--82 percent of Blacks supported offering undocumented immigrants an opportunity to become citizens.

Black Americans are twice as likely as white workers and one and a half times as likely as Latino workers to be unemployed. Black unemployment has fluctuated between 9 and 10 percent since 2001.

There is a reality that all low-wage workers--Black, white and Latino--are in a competition with each other for jobs. But Black joblessness is not caused by undocumented immigrants. The main factors in Black unemployment, first and foremost, are racial discrimination in hiring, the erosion of jobs in manufacturing, and incarceration.

When the federal government cut funding for job training from $245 million to $45 million in 2002, this had a lot more to do with younger Blacks losing jobs than the presence of undocumented workers.

Granting amnesty and full legalization to those who want it would go a long way toward dismantling the two-tier wage system that drives down wages for all workers--citizens and non-citizens alike.

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14256339p-15071364c.html

Senate sides with Bush = Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Vote favors a broad approach to immigration reform.
By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The Senate showed its cards on immigration Tuesday, aligning itself with President Bush's call Monday night for comprehensive reform that goes beyond simple border security.

In the first significant vote since resuming the immigration debate, conservatives and a handful of populist Democrats failed 40-55 to postpone guest worker and legalization proposals. The result foreshadows Senate approval of a complete immigration package next week, and thereby sets up a certain run-in with the House.

"It was a huge test vote; I was nervous as a cat," acknowledged Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. "I thought that was the toughest vote for most people; I think (our support) will grow from here."

Martinez co-authored the centerpiece compromise of the 616-page immigration bill, offering a route to legal status for most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. The amendment rejected Tuesday would have postponed such legalization and guest worker plans until the Department of Homeland Security certified all border security measures were in place.

"We have not enforced our border, and therefore its security is not respected," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. "What comes first is securing the American border."

The Senate could still face two dozen more amendments before it finishes tinkering with the immigration bill. Senators soundly rejected other amendments Tuesday as well, including one that would have eliminated a guest worker program altogether.

The Senate agreed, though, to scale back the guest worker plan to admit 200,000 immigrants a year, rather than the 325,000 originally proposed in the bill.

"It seems to me that 200,000 guest workers a year are ample," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

Still, coming one day after President Bush's high-profile national television address, it was the early afternoon rejection of Isakson's amendment that sent the loudest signals across Capitol Hill.

Thirty-six Democrats, 18 Republicans and one independent joined to defeat Isakson and, implicitly, support a comprehensive approach.

"It means that an enforcement- only bill can't get out of the Congress," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. "It's pretty clear that enforcement only will not work (politically)."

White House spokesman Tony Snow noted that Bush did not explicitly endorse the Senate bill in his Monday night address.

Instead, Snow indicated the president is saving his energy for the closed-door conference committee sessions between House and Senate negotiators. The action in the Senate, coupled with the lukewarm response to Bush's speech in the House, underscored how difficult it will be for Congress to produce a compromise that can reach the president's desk.

With conservative activists including National Review editors and Rush Limbaugh lambasting the speech, the White House sent Vice President Dick Cheney to calm the party's base.

In a radio interview on Limbaugh's nationwide radio show, Cheney said the White House is well aware of "legitimate concerns out there on the part of a lot of folks" and is moving quickly to address them. Cheney said the president has "given serious consideration" to erecting a wall along parts of the southern border to keep illegal immigrants out.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who opposes the guest worker and citizenship expansions being proposed, conceded Tuesday that the bill is heading to a conference. That's putting a premium on who gets to negotiate the final deal.

Republicanswhofavor a comprehensive bill, Radanovich noted, are hoping GOP leaders will pick as negotiators sympathetic lawmakers including Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.

Bush acknowledged Tuesday that "this is a difficult debate for members," but he did not reveal how he intended to change any minds.

Administration officials did, however, shed some more light on the new plan to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border.

The three-week shifts will take the place of the skills-training sessions Guard members must complete annually. This strategy is intended to minimize the strain on Guard units juggling duty in Iraq and in disaster- prone states, but it also prompts critics to question how much the constantly revolving troops could actually accomplish.

The National Guard's bureau chief, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, explained there would be a "continuity of force" to help things run smoothly. This would be a core of Guard personnel that would remain on their jobs through 2008 and coordinate with the relevant Border Patrol and U.S. customs officials.

"The dozer operator may change every two or three weeks, or the medic may change every two or three weeks, but the people that are coordinating that and working the project will remain in place," Blum said.

Pentagon officials said the force of 6,000 will remain at full strength for a year, and pledged to cut the number of guardsmen by half in the second year of the border mission, after which it is expected to end.

About the writer:
The Bee's Michael Doyle can be reached at (202) 383-0006 or mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com. The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post contributed to this report.

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http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3832180
Bush may not be able to deliver on immigration = 05/17/2006 08:20:29 AM PDT

PRESIDENT Bush has outlined one of the most reasonable, balanced and comprehensive immigration reform packages in the current national debate. The question is: Does he have enough clout and credibility left to get it through Congress?

A significant segment of W's traditional conservative constituency will be among the hardest to convince. As a lame-duck president with diminished popularity and a cargo ship full of other problems, he must seek allies among moderates and Democrats to have a chance to succeed. Handicappers might give generous odds against that happening.

Bush has taken a big chance on this volatile issue. The result is a moderate middle ground between the extremes of building a wall along the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out and giving them all amnesty.

He proposes securing the 2,000-mile border by adding 6,000 more Border Patrol agents, improving electronic surveillance and rotating 6,000 members of the National Guard along the border to handle nonlaw enforcement functions while the Border Patrol gradually grows. It won't stop illegal immigrants from coming, but it could slow the flow.

The president should have consulted the nation's governors before volunteering the National Guard for border duty. That failure justifiably annoyed California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others. Many unexpected demands have been made of Guard members since we invaded Iraq. Such units have served two, three or more tours in that war-torn country. States also rely on the Guard to fulfill needed functions that have gotten short shrift since the invasion of Iraq. Bush should have talked to governors before adding another duty to the Guard's bulging portfolio.

As is always the case with sketchy proposals, the devil is in the details. The administration must reassure the states whose Guard members go to the border that the federal government will pay the costs and provide backup if state emergencies arise.

Bush also proposes creating a temporary worker program with "biometric" ID cards, holding employers accountable for hiring illegal immigrants, giving law-abiding illegals a chance to earn citizenship, and he asked us to honor "the American tradition of the melting pot."

His plan parallels parts of a program proposed by the Senate. But it contradicts the tougher build-a-wall-and-make-'em-criminals bill passed by the House of Representatives. It seems doubtful that chamber will reconsider and adopt the president's plan.

Skeptics also see Bush's outline as an attempt to divert attention away from other problems. That may be partly true, but the president has been a consistent advocate of a reasonable immigration policy.

It's one of the issues Bush has been right on. Growing up in Texas and serving two terms as its governor made him aware of the importance immigration plays in border states and our nation's economy. Some have urged the president to become a leader on this issue. He is trying to do so. But can he still deliver?

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060517/pl_nm/usa_immigration_dc_24

Immigration bill moves forward By Joanne Kenen = May 17, 2006, 11:53 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a compromise that would bar illegal immigrants with criminal records from becoming legal residents or U.S. citizens.

The 99-0 vote on the amendment blocking felons and people with three misdemeanor convictions was a key hurdle for the bipartisan immigration bill, which would tighten border security while creating a guest worker program and a path toward citizenship for many of the nation's estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants.

The immigration bill nearly died in the Senate last month but partly because of prodding by President George W. Bush, the Senate has worked out some compromises and is increasingly likely to pass the measure next week.

But it still faces very tough negotiations with the U.S. House of Representatives, which approved a much tougher bill that cracks down on illegals and does not give them options for becoming legal.

Bush made a rare nationally televised speech on immigration on Monday backing the thrust of the Senate bill and his top political aide Karl Rove came to the Capitol on Wednesday to discuss the issue with House Republicans.

"I'd seen some talk that maybe this was going to be a highly contentious meeting, the readout I get is that it was not at all, it was respectful, people were obviously having exchanges of views on things," White House spokesman Tony Snow said of Rove's talks. "Do not assume that all positions are absolutely chiseled in stone."

The issue is extremely sensitive in a congressional election year when Republicans face many challenges to maintaining their control of the House and Senate.

Conservatives oppose any hint of an amnesty for illegals, while many business groups do want a pool of foreign workers and Hispanic groups are flexing political muscle demanding legalization. Another large rally and march to the Capitol was planned for Wednesday afternoon.

An earlier version of the amendment on criminals by Republicans Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas was seen as a "poison pill" that could have sunk the whole bill.

The compromise version kept the ban on felons and people with three misdemeanor convictions. To win backing, it granted waivers under some circumstances for illegal immigrants who had ignored deportation orders. For instance, they would be allowed to stay in the United States if their departure would cause "extreme hardship" to family members who are in the country legally.

"This amendment simply closes a loophole and strengthens the bill, and it will help keep Americans safe by ensuring that no felons or repeat criminal offenders will receive amnesty or citizenship," Cornyn said.

The Senate was to consider several other amendments Wednesday and Thursday, including some that could shape the temporary or guest worker program.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Thomas Ferraro))

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/17/MNGIIIT7UG1.DTL&type=politics

Some immigrant groups praise Bush = Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Others slam proposed guest-worker plan, stationing National Guard on border
By Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Immigrant rights groups in Washington applauded President Bush on Tuesday for backing a guest-worker program and a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, but activists in San Francisco and across the country denounced Bush's call for National Guard troops on the border.

They want "immediate legalization" and "full rights for all immigrants."

On the other end of the political spectrum, grassroots organizing by the Minutemen and others who have been calling for militarization of the border appeared to pay off in the president's call Monday for 6,000 National Guard troops to supplement the U.S. Border Patrol.

But restrictionist groups continued to criticize the president on immigration and called his announcement a "sham" and a "photo op."

Pro-immigrant groups in Washington affiliated with the new "We Are America Alliance," including the Service Employees International Union and the National Council of La Raza, said the president's speech was an important step in pushing the Senate to pass a "comprehensive" immigration-reform bill preferable to a measure approved by the House in December, which critics say provides "enforcement only."

"We are encouraged that the president understands it will take a comprehensive solution to address the complex immigration crisis our country now faces," SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina said in a prepared statement. "We urge our lawmakers to continue to work together in a bipartisan way to improve the current bill so it protects all working people, makes our country more secure, and provides an earned path to citizenship for hardworking immigrants."

But many of the millions of street protesters at this spring's huge immigrant-rights marches have unapologetically called for amnesty for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country. Protests today in cities across the country, including San Francisco, are alternately billed as "national lobbying day" and a "national day of action" to speak out against some of the proposals afloat in Congress. Other events are scheduled this weekend, on Memorial Day weekend and in June.

Peter Camejo, the Green Party's gubernatorial candidate, said the debate in Washington doesn't address the aspirations of many illegal immigrants. He compared the current political divide to the situation a decade before passage of the Civil Rights Act.

"If you asked in 1950, or even 1960, what Washington was willing to pass on civil rights, it would not be what African American people wanted," Camejo said. "Because they wanted complete and total civil rights, including the right to vote. The people who have suffered discrimination are not going to accept anything like this."

At a lunchtime news conference Tuesday outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's downtown San Francisco office, Jose Sandoval, leader of a San Jose immigrant rights group, Voluntarios de la Comunidad, called for permanent residency for all immigrant workers and criticized the bill in the works in the Senate.

"We pay taxes, and we're saying, 'No taxation without representation,' " he said. "The Senate bill doesn't give legal status to everyone who's here."

In its current version, the bill would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the United States more than two years to apply for legal residence permits, which pave the path to citizenship.

Sandoval and other immigrant activists also opposed a guest-worker proposal that appears in some versions of the Senate bill and is supported by the SEIU and other groups as a legal way for future immigrants to work in the United States.

For Luis Magaña of Stockton, it was a grim reminder of the bracero program under which his father labored for many years. Many historians have said the program was fraught with abuses, especially because it tied workers to a single employer and withheld part of their wages to encourage them to return to Mexico.

"My father was a victim," said Magaña, who said he has no faith that a new temporary-worker program would be more fair. "He didn't have the full rights of a normal worker in the United States. ... They haven't spelled out the details, and there's no discussion with the people who will be affected."

Judy Golub, the new executive director of San Francisco's Immigrant Legal Resource Center, handed out flyers outside Feinstein's office detailing elements of the Senate proposal that immigrant activists deem unacceptable. Just weeks ago, Golub was working in Washington for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"In Washington, they're talking about problems in the bill, but they're trying to get a bill through," she said. "There are differences in how to do this, but they're differences in the family."

Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy at the National Council of La Raza, agreed.

"People will have differences of opinion not only in terms of substance, but also in terms of tactics and strategy," said Waslin. "The people working in D.C. doing lobbying activities are only supplemented by the millions of people who came out in the streets."

Bush, meanwhile, is seeking consensus among Republicans, who are deeply divided over immigration. His call for 6,000 National Guard troops to enhance law enforcement at the border didn't seem to win him any support from immigration restrictionists.

Dan Stein, director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, called Bush's announcement "a baby step" but stressed that enforcement should not be tied to amnesty or a guest-worker program "to satisfy the cheap-labor lobby."

People who have participated in civilian patrols along the border over the past year were even more critical.

"We're disappointed. ... We were hoping for a state of emergency," said Chris Simcox, director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Arizona. "We need troops directly, physically on that border. We don't need more beds for detaining people. We need to deter them with a gauntlet, a formidable presence on that border."

Although the Senate could vote on a bill this month, it's unlikely the debate will be resolved this year, said David Reimers, a professor emeritus of history at New York University and an expert on American immigration history.

"I wouldn't be surprised if nothing happened, besides Bush sending the Guard to the border," he said. "My guess is we'll muddle through for a while. The best way to get rid of (illegal immigrants) is to have a major depression. It will take a long time before they reach a happy compromise."

E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMMIGRATION_TXOL-?SITE=TXELP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Senate approves border fence, endorses citizenship chance = May 17, 9:58 PM EDT
By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate agreed to give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship and backed construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday. Prospects for legislation clearing Congress were clouded by a withering attack against President Bush by a prominent House Republican.

"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators in any attempt to draft a compromise immigration bill later this year.

Bush stood his ground. "The Republican Party needs to lead on the issue of immigration," he told an audience of GOP donors, "...America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society and we don't have to choose between the two."

The blast by Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, came on the day the White House dispatched top presidential aide Karl Rove to ease the concerns of rebellious House Republicans and GOP senators clashed on the Senate floor.

"This is not amnesty, so let's get the terms right," Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska lectured fellow Republicans who condemned the bill. "Come on. Let's stop the nonsense."

"It sort of reminds me of the famous line, `Methinks thou dost protest too much,'" responded Sen. David Vitter, R-La..

Rhetoric aside, the votes on the Senate floor gave fresh momentum to legislation that closely follows Bush's call for a broad bill. The measure includes steps to secure the borders, the citizenship-related provisions for illegal immigrants and a new guest worker program for as many as 200,000 people a year. Senate passage appears likely next week.

The political wheels turned as demonstrators massed within sight of the Capitol demanding greater rights for immigrants, the latest evidence of rising passions in connection with efforts to write the most significant overhaul of immigration law in two decades.

With the administration eager to emphasize its commitment to border security, officials continued to flesh out details of Bush's Monday night announcement that he would send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, raised the possibility that Guard members could be sent over the objections of a state's governor.

"If a governor truly did not want this mission performed in their state, then the option is there for the president and the secretary of defense to federalize the Guard. And then the mission would be conducted, and then it would be without the control of the governor," he said.

Vitter led the drive to strip from the bill a provision giving an eventual chance at citizenship to illegal immigrants who have been in the country more than two years. His attempt failed, 66-33, at the hands of a bipartisan coalition, and the provision survived. In all, 41 Democrats joined with 24 Republicans and one independent to turn back the proposal. Opponents included the leaders of both parties, Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Harry Reid, D-Nev. Thirty-one Republicans and two Democrats supported Vitter's amendment.

The vote to build what supporters called a "real fence" - as distinct from the virtual fence already incorporated in the legislation - was 83-16. The fence would be built in areas "most often used by smugglers and illegal aliens," as determined by federal officials. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., estimated the cost at roughly $3.2 million per mile, more than $900 million for 300 miles.

The provision includes a call for construction of 500 miles of vehicle barriers, adding to a system currently in place.

It marked the first significant victory for conservatives eager to leave their stamp on a measure that looks increasingly like it is headed toward Senate passage.

Construction would send "a signal that open-border days are over. ... Good fences make good neighbors, fences don't make bad neighbors," Sessions said. He said border areas where barriers are in place have experienced economic improvement and reduced crime.

"What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics," countered Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said if the proposal passed, "our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between our two countries."

All Republicans and more than half the Senate's Democrats supported the proposal. A core group of bill supporters who have held off other more serious challenges in the past two days made little attempt to fight this one, judging it far less damaging than the attack on the citizenship provision or an attempt on Tuesday to strip out a guest worker program.

Supporters of the Senate measure credited Bush's prime-time Monday night speech with giving fresh momentum to the effort to pass long-stalled legislation.

Across the Capitol in the House, the story was different.

Sensenbrenner's remarks were unusually sharp, given his chairmanship. "He said four times this is not amnesty. Well, it is an amnesty, because it allows people who have broken the law to stay in the country," he said of the positions Bush staked out in his speech earlier in the week.

In a conference call with reporters, Sensenbrenner also said Bush had "basically turned his back" on a tough border security bill after requesting that certain provisions be included before passage last year.

The House legislation passed over strenuous Democratic opposition. It would make all illegal aliens subject to prosecution as felons and calls for construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border - more than twice as long as the barrier the Senate backed during the day.

Several members of the rank-and-file have criticized Bush for his proposals. To calm their concerns, Rove attended the regular closed door meeting of the rank and file, where participants said he sought to reassure lawmakers about the administration's commitment to securing the borders.

Associated Press writer Fred Frommer contributed to this story.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p10s01-uspo.html

In pushing for immigration reform, Bush aims to shore up GOP base = May 17, 2006 edition
The hope is that getting it done will help his standing - even if the guest-worker plan irks some Republicans. = By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – Viewed through a political lens, President Bush's push for immigration reform this week could be seen as part of an effort to bring Republican voters back to his side.
The problem is that the GOP is deeply divided on the issue - so when Mr. Bush makes some Republicans happy by sticking to his proposed guest-worker program, he turns off the "secure the border first" advocates. A lot. Overall, immigration has never been Bush's strongest issue. A May 11-12 poll for Newsweek shows that 41 percent of Republicans agree with the president's position on immigration, down from 46 percent in January 2004.

That's just a five-point drop. Ultimately, then, there is little evidence that the noisy debate over immigration is the principal culprit behind the decline in support for Bush among Republicans, which has helped sink his overall job approvals into the mid- to low 30s. So how does his advocacy of comprehensive immigration reform, which has emerged as Bush's signature initiative of the year, help the president among his core Republican constituency?

It's not Bush's specific prescription that will help him, GOP analysts say, it's the act of getting something done. Right now, says Republican pollster Whit Ayres, the operative word is "frustration."

"It's not just frustration with the president, it's frustration with the fact that Republicans control the presidency and the Senate and the House, and Republican base voters wonder why we can't get action on critical initiatives," Mr. Ayres says.

Wednesday, when the president signs legislation prolonging tax cuts, he will have accomplished one of his principal reelection promises - and probably have helped himself among GOP voters.

But the push for broad immigration reform is what has members of both parties talking and arguing. Bush's latest proposal, unveiled in a nationally televised speech Monday night, includes deploying as many as 6,000 National Guard troops along the US border with Mexico for at least a year while the number of border patrol agents can be expanded. In calling, too, for a guest-worker program, Bush stated forcefully that he opposes "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, maintaining that his proposal for an earned path to citizenship for illegals would not move them ahead of those who have followed the rules for legal immigration.

In making the speech, his first from the Oval Office on a domestic policy matter, Bush has inserted himself forcefully into the details of a domestic issue in a way that departs from his usual pattern. Typically, the president proposes broad principles and lets Congress work out the details. Now, after that technique failed with Social Security reform, the White House knows Bush must be his own best advocate - especially as he nears the start of the final quarter of his presidency and seeks to delay as long as possible anything that looks like lame-duck status.

"It's crunch time," said Tony Snow, White House press secretary, looking ahead Monday morning to the president's speech.

When asked about the political implications of Bush's plan, Mr. Snow offered this reply: "Good policy is good politics." Later that morning, at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, presidential adviser Karl Rove presented the same argument on immigration reform: "This is about getting the right policy, and the politics will take care of itself."

In his address Monday, Bush himself used a phrase - "rational middle ground" - not often heard in his policy proposals.

"There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation," Bush said. "That middle ground recognizes there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently, and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record."

Not since the early days of his presidency, when he forged a compromise with Democrats on education reform in producing the No Child Left Behind Act, has Bush set himself up for this kind of thread-the-needle legislative workmanship. The trick this time, however, will not be to get enough Democrats to go along. Rather, it will be to fulfill the congressional Republicans' own rule of getting "a majority of the majority" to sign on.

Bush "is trying to get something done, which is the most important thing," says Charles Black, a Washington lawyer and longtime GOP adviser. "He wants a comprehensive reform ... because it's the right thing, but also because you're not going to get pieces of the plan through Congress without the others anyhow."

He adds that in pushing comprehensive reform, versus just a border crackdown, Bush could jeopardize some support with his political base, but at the same time gain support of Hispanic voters. Since the immigration debate has intensified, Bush's approval among Hispanics has declined, from 39 percent in January to 30 percent in April, according to independent pollster John Zogby. The Hispanic vote is growing fast and thus is politically crucial.

Bush can get a compromise bill that most voters will accept, Mr. Black says. "People prefer something to nothing," he says. "Republican rank-and-file voters want border security as a top priority, and they want some enforcement. But if you have those two things [in the bill], a guest-worker program is acceptable to them."

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/16/MNGR0ISP6813.DTL

Immigrant rights groups protest across California = Tuesday, May 16, 2006
- Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

(05-16) 13:27 PDT SAN FRANCISCO - Grassroots immigrant rights activists in San Francisco and several other California cities staged a series of press conferences today to slam President Bush's call for National Guard troops to patrol the border.

They also denounced both the immigration bill now under consideration in the U.S. Senate and another the House passed in December as punitive, and they called for legal permanent residency for all the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now in the United States.

Activists in San Francisco -- who represented community networks of primarily Mexican immigrants from San Jose, Salinas, Sacramento, Stockton and other cities -- rallied outside the Financial District office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, with signs and banners that read "Do Not Militarize the Border" and "No Human Being Is Illegal."

Leaders said they would continue marching in the streets until their message is heard by senators in Washington, D.C., debating whether to provide legal status to many illegal immigrants, create a temporary guest worker program for future immigrants and beef up immigration enforcement at the border and in American workplaces.

The guest worker proposal particularly rankled Luis Magaña, a community organizer from Stockton whose father worked for years under the Bracero program, which brought in temporary workers from Mexico from 1942 to 1964. Magaña called the Bracero program abusive.

"If a program doesn't give us the full rights accorded other workers in the United States, then we're against it," he said. "They haven't spelled out the details and there's no discussion with the people who will be affected."

E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com .

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/16/MNGR0ISP6813.DTL

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http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3824635

Economic impact of illegal immigration still unclear = 05/15/2006 08:22:56 AM PDT
As debate resumes, both sides agree definitive study nearly impossible
By Alex Veiga, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The debate over immigration reform resumes on Capitol Hill this week — so brace for a barrage of conflicting claims over whether the millions of people here illegally drain or fill the government's wallet.

Illegal immigrants cost $20 billion each year in education, health care and other public services. They contribute more than $7 billion annually in Social Security taxes for benefits they will never claim.

Those are just some of the statistics that lawmakers and interest groups from both sides will trot out starting today, when the Senate begins discussing what will be the most sweeping immigration reform legislation in 20 years.

Do illegal immigrants take more than they contribute? Or is it the other way around?

Answers often reflect the opinions of who is talking as much as the reality of illegal immigrants in the United States today, according to academics who study the issue.

"Because of the politically charged nature of this, people are going to cherry-pick their results," said V. Joseph Hotz, a labor economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who does not believe a definitive study is possible.

One reason is the nature of the population in question.

"Anything that is illegal, the data is going to be suspect," said Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University who has been studying immigration issues for 40 years.

That won't stop Congress from wrestling with that bottom line and other issues.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said he is committed to passing immigration reform legislation by Memorial Day. The bill up for debate would include additional border security, a new guest-worker program and provisions opening the way to eventual citizenship for many of the illegal immigrants in the country.

The House passed a bill late last year that would criminalize illegal immigrants and those who offer them assistance.

Pressure to act quickly has intensified. A majority of Americans now cite anxiety over immigration as one of the most important problems facing the nation, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Yet compiling hard data has been difficult.

Even the number of illegal immigrants in the country is debated. The generally accepted figure is about 11 million, but but could be as high as 20 million.

In diverse areas such as Los Angeles, illegal immigrants can rent an apartment and open a checking account with little more than an ID from their home country. That kind of anonymity hampers researchers trying to tally how many are here — and how much they cost in public services.

To fill in the blanks, researchers often assume the bulk of illegal immigrants have little or no formal education or skills, are likely to live at or below the poverty level, contribute little in the form of taxes and take advantage of public services.

One report both sides cite as one of the most definitive is nearly a decade old. In 1997, the National Research Council concluded that all immigrants — not just those here illegally — had a negative fiscal impact on state and local services but at the federal level received less in services than they paid in taxes.

In California, the state with the highest population of foreign-born residents, citizen households were saddled with an annual tax burden of $1,178 from the use of public services by immigrants, according to the study.

Pro-immigrant groups counter that whatever the answer — whether immigrants pay more in taxes than they use in services or the other way around — the economic importance of illegal immigrants is undeniable.

"You don't know whether a guy who is loading boxes on a truck or onto a ship on the docks pays his taxes or not," said Benjamin Johnson, director of the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center, which calls itself nonpartisan but pro-immigrant. "But you know what that worker means as a cog on the economic wheel."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0413/p08s02-comv.html

A Latino movement? Or just a moment? = The Monitor's View = April 13, 2006 edition

The turnout surprised everyone. More than 500,000 Latino protesters in Los Angeles last month. Nearly as many in Dallas Sunday. On Monday, hundreds of thousands nationwide. It's big, it's unprecedented - and no one knows what it portends.

Quite unexpectedly, a population living in the shadows of American society has emerged into full view and found its voice. Illegal immigrants and their supporters are on the march, galvanized by a House immigration bill heavy on enforcement and offering no path to citizenship.

Most of the protesters are Latinos. And for many, this is their first American political experience - the largest showing of such power from a group that has overtaken African-Americans in number.

The demonstrators identify with the civil rights marches of the '60s, singing "We Shall Overcome" in Spanish. They talk about the beginning of a national movement. "Today, we march; tomorrow, we vote," enthused, young faces chanted. On May 1, they plan a national boycott of jobs and commerce.

But is this a movement in the making or just a moment ?

It's a stretch to compare the protests to the civil rights movement. That struggle emerged from an entirely different history, including slavery and decades of statutory discrimination that took years of court and legislative action to overturn. What Congress is grappling with is more of a policy decision - a complex one, but a regulatory one nonetheless.

At the same time, the civil rights movement benefited from strong leadership. The Latino protesters are a grass-roots phenomenon, spurred on by Spanish-language media, and loosely organized. Churches, unions, and community groups, seeing this wave coming, have grabbed their surfboards and are riding it.

Nor is this the only Latino wave. A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center last August shows one-third of Latinos born in the US believe illegal immigration hurts the economy by driving down wages. About 60 percent favor banning driver's licenses for illegals.

At this point, the demonstrators' message also registers more as a protest against the specifics of a certain bill, than an agreed agenda on how to get to their goal of citizenship. If that goal is ever reached, is that the movement's end? Latinos, to date, have coalesced around single issues, but haven't shown much political unity on the national level. In 2004, they accounted for only 8 percent of the vote. Illegal migrants, of course, can't vote.

Which is another reason why it's so hard to gauge the protesters' influence on Congress. One sympathetic sentiment - "we are not criminals" - is apparently being heard. Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, the Republican who sponsored the House bill, described as "overkill" the provision that makes it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to assist one.

Yet many politicians are rightly standing firm for stronger enforcement of the law. And protesters may find they spark a backlash in advocating citizen rights for lawbreakers.

At this early stage, it's impossible to say where this new Latino movement, if that's what it turns out to be, is headed. It's fighting for more than 11 million illegal migrants. It wants its voice heard. For now, that's all that can be known.

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Urgent Action Alert!
The Upcoming Battle Against Anti-Immigrant Legislation,
And A Call for A National Immigrant Solidarity Movement

A Call From National Immigrant Solidarity Network
May 14, 2006

http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
http://www.NoHR4437.org

Folks:

Next week will be a key moment in immigrant rights/civil rights work.

Tomorrow evening (Monday, 5/15), President Bush will deliver a prime time televised address, announcing the deployment of National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border. Also at some point in the next two weeks, U.S. Senate leaders are expected to approve parts of the so-called compromise immigrant legislation (such as the HEGAL-MARTINEZ Bill).

This is a critical moment for the immigrant struggle. Despite millions of people across the country on May 1st marching in the streets for immigrant rights, the right wing anti-immigrant forces in Congress and President Bush want to "talk tough on immigration."

We should brace ourselves for the ultimate showdown of the immigrant struggle soon, and we should mobilize ourselves quickly to respond to the racist anti-immigrant xenophobia that will go down.

We suggest organizing the following actions:

1) A local press conference, rally or vigil to denounce the racist anti-immigrant proposals from Congress and the President.

2) Legislative actions, including calling, writing and faxing your elected officials.

3) An emergency community meeting to strategize rapid response to a possible nationwide crackdown or attack on immigrants.

4) We are calling for multi-ethnic, broad-based national mobilization on Memorial Day weekend (5/27-29). Organize creative local actions against the possible passage of any anti-immigrant legislation and further government-sponsored immigrant crackdowns.

We urge you to support the Nine Points for Immigrant Rights, proposed by the Los Angeles March 25th Coalition:

- No to the anti-immigrant HR4437 and any other "copycat" legislation from Congress
- No to militarization of the border
- No to criminalization of immigrant communities
- No to the planned immigrant crackdown across the country
- No to the guest worker program

- Yes to amnesty for undocumented immigrants
- Yes to immigrant family reunification
- Yes to a humane path to citizenship
- Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers

On May 1st, we showed the world that our force, our strength and our voice cannot be silenced from this moment on! This is the birth of a new civil rights movement for the 21st century, and we will fight for our demands until we prevail.

United We'll Win! Together We'll Achieve Our Dreams!
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RELEVANT LINKS AND ONLINE GROUPS:

Immigrant Solidarity Network
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/

Border01 · US-Mexico Border Actions Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Border01/

STOP THE FTAA! U-S-Mexico Border Action Project
http://actionla.org/border/

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
http://www.sneej.org/index.html

National Network for Immigrant Refugee Rights
http://www.nnirr.org/
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Join the Immigrant-Rights-Agenda Yahoo Group!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Immigrant-Rights-Agenda/
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Blogsource:
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/05/immigrant-rights-agenda-report-sunday.html

Submitted c/s by Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta de Aztlan
CASA Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
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Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog
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De Todos Para Todos Blog

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c/s
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Migrant Diaries Blog

2005-12-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

Migrant Diaries Blogspot
http://www.migrantdiaries.blogspot.com/

The National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national U.S. organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists committed to immigrant rights. For more information about NNIRR, visit www.nnirr.org. This blog documents NNIRR's efforts and experiences in various international arenas including the WTO ministerial meetings, the World Social Forum, etc.

Thursday, December 01, 2005
Preview to the 6th WTO meeting in Hong Kong
by Colin Rajah
[National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
crajah@nnirr.org or colinrajah@yahoo.com
Cell: +852-6079-1700
Hong Kong]
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Colin Rajah, the International Migrant Rights Program Coordinator of the National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (NNIRR), will be representing the National Network at the upcoming World Trade Organization's (WTO) 6th Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, December 13th - 18th, 2005.

Part of the San Francisco Bay Area WT-No delegation, and in close collaboration with similar contingents from Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, Colin will be among the thousands of people who will be challenging the WTO and its global economic policies, while trying to uphold the voices of immigrants that are being unheard at the WTO.

The Bay Area WT-No delegation includes Chinese Progressive Associates (CPA), Chin Jurn Wor Ping (CJWP), Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB), and other activists and artists of Asian-Pacific Islander (API) descent. The national U.S. API contingent also includes the Garment Workers Center (GWC), Multi-ethnic Immigrant Workers Oranizing Network (MIWON), CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and Community Organizing Committee (CYOC).

In Hong Kong, the National Network will be coordinating a number of activities including co-organizing a solidarity tent with WT-No and the U.S. API delegation at Victoria Park on December 14th & 15th, from 2pm-5pm, for low-wage workers, especially migrant workers. This solidarity tent space is entitled "Building Solidarity Amongst Garment, Farm, and Other Migrant Workers from San Francisco to Hong Kong."

The National Network will also be co-convening a symposium entitled "Migrant Workers, Human Rights & Trade: Unpacking GATS Mode 4" on the WTO's proposed global guest-worker program, alongside the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Migrant Rights International (MRI). This symposium will be at Victoria Park on December 16th from 11am-5pm. Invited presenters and participants at this 1/2-day forum include the Migrant Forum of Asia (MFA), Migrante-International, FOCUS on the Global South, South Centre, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Via Campesina, and many other migrants from around the region and the world. The symposium will overview what Mode 4 entails, the experiences of other guest-worker programs, testimonials of migrant guest-workers from around the world, as well as discuss strategies and collaborations to embark on from Hong Kong onwards.

In the U.S., the National Network has also co-issued a national call to action alongside Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) and Jobs with Justice (JwJ) for a week of action for global justice and immigrant rights from December 10th-18th. In addition, the National Network has also called for vigils and other actions and events for Thursday, December 15th, to recognize International Migrants Day (December 18), including highlighting the role the WTO and other similar economic institutions have played in impoverishing and displacing communities around the world and forcing mass migrations, while proposing and implementing mechanisms such as Mode 4 which violate migrant workers' rights and maintaining a pool of cheap, disposable labor for corporate interests. It is expected that dozens of grassroots and community-based organizations will organize actions in cities across the U.S. on December 15th and throughout that week of action.

Watch this space for postings from Hong Kong and the U.S. about activities and experiences related to the WTO meeting, as well as International Migrants Day!

posted by National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights at 2:53 PM links to this post
About Me

Name:National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
Location:Oakland, California, United States
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Response: Message from Hong Kong to the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement from the mobilization against the WTO

2005-12-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

Response: Message from Hong Kong to the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement from the mobilization against the WTO

Gracias Companeros Colin, Arnoldo and Mario ~Let us continue to unite on the common agenda of humane rights for all, always including the humane rights of all immigrants, refugees and all homeless people.

Concentration on the coordination of our communications is key for all forward moving liberation movements and we can utilize the power of the Internet to advance our causes in concert with local community education.

I appreciate your blogspot companero Colin and will be checking it out from time to time.

http://www.migrantdiaries.blogspot.com/

We here now inside the United States are already living under a mature fascism and attacks on immigrants are subtly disguised under the pseudo-patriotic banner of Homeland Security, including unjust attacks by the neo-Nazi Minutemen.

We must be willing to answer sensible questions, engage in constructive debates and coherently argue our positions in aggressive support of humane rights in general.

We need to always absorb more and more conscious supporters who themselves are able to explain to others about migrant rights in the context of humane rights in general.

We join with all our companeros to Celebrate International Migrant Rights Day on December 18th, 2005 and we should continue to work on the basic cause of humane rights every day and night in our protracted fight against Amerikan Fascism.

Relevant Links:
http://www.nnirr.org/dec18/index.html

Migrant Rights are Humane Rights!
Peter S. Lopez {aka Peta} ~ Coordinator
Sacramento, California, USA
Yahoo Email~ sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Immigrant-Rights-Agenda/
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From Mario Galvan mario@zsc.org wrote:
Hi all,

It seems that borders around the world are being challenged, not just our own!

Mario
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From: Arnoldo Garcia agarcia@nnirr.org
To: agarcia@nnirr.org

Subject: Message from Hong Kong to the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement from the mobilization against the WTO
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005

From Colin Rajah, NNIRR, at the mobilizations against the WTO in Hong Kong:

Dear NNIRR members, allies and friends,

I want to express my extremely deep-hearted gratitude for taking action -- sending emails, faxes and making calls to stop my deportation and demand my release from detention in Hong Kong because of my migration status. Due to each and every one of your efforts, I was finally released after 12 hours in dentention, and approximately less than an hour before my scheduled deportation.

The director of the immigration department himself came to visit me in the detention center to explain that they had received numerous calls, faxes and emails to demanding my release, which prompted them to reconsider my case. I want to particularly thank Jessica Walker Beaumont and Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee, and my colleagues at the National Network (NNIRR) for their persistence around my case.  Thank you all.

However, this is not an isolated case. The harassment of immigrants and refugees around the WTO ministerial meetings and similar convenings of government trade negotiators is nothing new.  Even here in HK (as in the US) with consistent harrasment of migrant workers, the WTO meetings have heightened the attack against migrant workers. On December 12th and 13th, the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union and KOTHIKO (a collective of Indonesian migrant workers) was raided not just once or twice, but a total of THREE times by plain-clothes police. The police said that they received reports of "illegals" and accusations of "bombs and other explosives" at the migrant workers offices.

However, together with our allies Asian Migrant Centre (AMC), Migrant Forum Asia (MFA) and others here, and alongside our grassroots API delegation we continue to raise attention on the issues migrant workers face under the WTO's trade policies.

I can be reached by mobile (cell phone) here at +852-6079-1700 at any time.  Please do not hesitate to circulate this number and the others' from the grassroots API delegation and Bay Area WT-No to any one who might want to reach us here.

Thank you, and please keep a lookout at migrantdiaries.blogspot.com for an update in the next day.  Thank you everyone again.

For justice and solidarity across borders,

Colin Rajah
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
crajah@nnirr.org or colinrajah@yahoo.com
Cell: +852-6079-1700
Hong Kong
_________________________________________
Arnoldo Garcia
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados
310 8th Street Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305
Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.org

Update: Background on the Minutemen ~12-07-05

2005-12-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Update: Background on the Minutemen ~12-07-05

Gracias Scott ~ I will pass this on to a couple of Groups and others. Did you Blog this? I will do so today.. Better to post direct therein to other Groups via a tight address book in the future if you get the time in your corporate world! Oct 29th List is a small one and its people need to get more involved in direct local action instead of political and philosophical discussions, as do I, but we need to reach out to larger groups of people in general on a variety of vital issues.

Keep up the good work, good research and good Holidays to you and all your loved ones.

Fight Back Against Amerikan Fascism!
Peter S. Lopez {aka Peta} ~ Coordinator
Sacramento, California, USA
Yahoo Email~ sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/Humane-Rights-Agenda
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Scott Campbell <soupshow@hotmail.com> wrote:

Sorry that I didn't get this together sooner. Been writing so much other stuff for this list, I haven't had a chance to get this together.

This is about all the of the information I have readily available about the Minuteman Project. I'm sure I'll miss some things, so feel free to plug any holes, but hopefully this helps give a clearer picture of things.

The Minuteman Project was founded by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox. Gilchrist is from Aliso Viejo, CA, and after 9-11 he had a mental breakdown and became obsessed with immigration issues (by his own admission). Simcox is based in Tombstone, AZ. He previously ran a vigilante group called something like the Civilian Homeland Defense. He also bought a local paper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed and used it as a platform to rant about immigration. It was boycotted by residents and went bankrupt. Simcox isn't allowed into California because of a previous firearms violation conviction that occurred when he was out being a vigilante.

In April they launched a two-week patrol of the border in Arizona. Despite all the media attention and claims of thousands coming in, less than 1000 Minutemen cycled through during that period. 80% were armed and several documented members of white supremacist groups participated. Their major talking points were concerns about "terrorism", migrants hurting the economy and using up social services, and the exploitation of undocumented workers (aren't they so kind?).

This opened a floodgate of sorts and since the April patrol over 40 Minutemen imitator groups have popped up around the country. It also prompted a flurry of anti-immigrant legislation. Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and California all have anti-immigrant initiatives or legislation pending. Arizona, which already passed Prop. 200 in Nov. '04, which required proof of citizenship to use public services, has 18 such pieces of legislation. In CA, the main initiative is of course the CA Border Police Initiative, backed by Ray Haynes and Rescue California, the same group who backed Schwarzenegger in the recall. John Campbell initially backed it, but has pulled back recently during his run for Congress against Gilchrist.

These people all support the Minutemen, as does Schwarzenegger who invited them and met with them in his office. Simcox has testified before Congress and the Border Patrol is looking at using civilian volunteers. The head of the Border Patrol union backed Gilchrist in today's election. All indications suggest that next year will be an even bigger one in terms of the debate around immigration and how to "reform" it.

California this year has seem three waves of vigilantes.

The first was the US Border Patrol Auxiliary, then renamed California Minutemen, then renamed Border Watch Federation. This was run by Jim Chase who was with the MMP in April but split later on. He's the most militant and told fellow vigilantes to bring sniper rifles and machetes. They were around in Campo, CA, from 7/18 to 8/8 and were effectively shut down by protesters. Rumor has it they have found a permanent training site near Campo and randomly announce patrols in the area. They are trying to extend to become a national federation.

The second group was Friends of the Border Patrol run by Andy Ramirez. He timed the launch for 9/16 to coincide with Mexico's Independence Day. He said it would be an open-ended patrol along the whole CA border and that he had received thousands of inquiries and at least 700 applications. Only two dozen showed up. They put off the patrol for two weeks and then went underground after our group and others gave them a hearty unwelcome in San Diego. They recently canceled their patrol after an internal dispute.

The actual Minuteman Project patrolled the CA for the month of October, along with all states on the border with Mexico and a few on the border with Canada (to prove they're not racists, eh?). By this time, due to a split between Simcox and Gilchrist (lots of splitting), they were known as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. Gilchrist took the MMP name and has started a project called "Operation Spotlight" to reveal and prosecute employers of undocumented workers. Their turnout was lower than expected, but so was the resistance to them. Like the rest, they were unsuccessful, claiming only three "apprehensions." (Chase claimed two, Andy never said - so we're guessing 0.)

Now that their big October is over, it's unclear what they're planning. A lot of energy was put into Gilchrist's campaign. A lot has been lost because of the massive amount of infighting. My guess is they will try to regroup and reenergize for the coming debate next year over immigration. It's seems they've lost momentum, but their base is still fired up.

A final noteworthy group is Save Our State, founded by Joe Turner and based in Los Angeles. Their main task seems to be harassing day laborer centers. They have documented ties with white supremacists, including the National Alliance. A memorable moment occurred at a rally of theirs in Laguna Beach when the Nazis in their ranks unfurled several large flags with swastikas on them.

Wherever these types go, they have been met with resistance. Our group has been in contact and developed ties with all sorts of groups from around the country and the continent - a lot of good connections have been made.

Further reading:
http://wwwlaweekly.com/ink/05/36/news-ehrenreich.php;
www.splcenter.org;
www.deletetheborder.org

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this helps.scott
http://angrywhitekid.blogscom/weblog
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Califas Border Police Plan Draws Throngs

2005-11-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Califas Border Police Plan Draws Throngs

Oct 29, 10:36 PM EDT
By TOM CHORNEAU, AP Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Dueling demonstrations over a plan to create state border police drew nearly 1,000 people to the Capitol on Saturday, and about two dozen police officers, some on horseback, stood between the rival gatherings to maintain order.

Authorities reported three arrests during the two-hour standoff, which illustrated California's growing divide over how best to secure its border with Mexico.

A proposed ballot initiative by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, to create a state immigration police force was the reason for the rallies, but the role that volunteer citizen patrols known as "Minutemen" play on the Mexico-U.S. border also prompted debate. A San Diego-based group announced last month that it had taken border patrols into its own hands to stop illegal immigrants and drug smugglers form entering California.

"We have a major problem on the border with the illegals," said Robin Gable, 50 of Sacramento, who was one of about 300 who came to hear speeches from politicians and others urging voters to sign ballot petitions. "I'm here to support the Minutemen and our border patrols. You have terrorists, there's drugs coming across. Something has to be done about it."

Not far away on the sidewalk stood Tomas Alejo, 30, of Watsonville, Calif., who was part of a counterprotest of about 700 people.

"Our people should be treated with dignity and respect," he said. "We don't believe that people should be dogged if they are from one side of the border or the other. We denounce what the Minutemen are all about."

Haynes said he hopes his initiative qualifies for the 2006 ballot. The border police force would be charged specifically with enforcing federal immigration laws.

Peter Camejo, an independent vice presidential candidate in 2004, led the counter-protest. He said the effort to seal off the borders is wrong, and that those coming across the border are needed for the American economy.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CALIFORNIA_IMMIGRATION?SITE=FLTAM&SEC
© 2005 The Associated Press.

a network ZSC has some info on:

2005-11-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I talked to Kat Rodriguez, who works with these guys in September, I think. (She's from the area and comes to visit.)

If we don't want to redevelop the wheel, maybe being part of this network is an option.

Also, I'm annoyed that the original email I sent out to the Oct 29 list apparently didn't go out. It also has some info on the MinuteMen, the groups that demonstrated against them Oct. 8 in So. Calif. and a picture. (it was rather a large email) Blog if you want me to send it to you (or write the ZSC)

Nancy Leman
from the ZSC office Sacramento

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
U.S./México Border Manifesto

JOIN THE SOUTHWEST NETWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE (SNEEJ) AND ITS AFILIATE ORGANIZATIONS AND ALLIES, UNITED UNDER A COMMON CALL FOR SOCIAL, RACIAL, CULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE, AND COME TOGETHER IN SOLIDARITY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE U.S./MÉXICO BORDER.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

SW NETWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
PO Box 7399
Albuquerque, NM 87194
(505) 242-0416
(505) 242-5609
e-mail: info@sneej.org
www.sneej.org
October 2005 Border Wide Protest Manifesto

To all border residents:

A movement started in 2001 to organize a border to border protest from Tijuana and San Diego on the Pacific to Brownsville and Matamoros on the Gulf of México. This year the Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice is organizing the FIFTH ANNUAL BORDER WIDE PROTEST.

The Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice with headquarters in Albuquerque, NM, represents over 55 grassroots non-governmental organizations in the southwestern states and adjoining border states in México.

The BORDER WIDE PROTEST takes place every October. The significance is the historic impact of colonialism, the new colonialism; the globalization that we confront from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and now the new expanded versions called the CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), the AFTA (Andean Free Trade Agreement) and the Plan Panama Puebla. All are pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that was the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) which failed during negotiations in Miami, Florida in 2003.

Historically, the México-U.S. bi-national region has been neglected by the governments of México City and Washington D.C., where decisions are made at the centers of power far from the border reality. Neither government has taken any action on long persistent problems that we face as a bi-national region. As residents of both sides of the border we suffer similar injustices, like: environmental contamination; poverty; violence; unemployment; low salaries; the absence of healthcare; insufficiency and the privatization of public services such as electricity and water.

In a unified VOICE, we are protesting today to say ‘¡YA BASTA!’ ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! NO MORE TRADE AGREEMENTS THAT LEAVE THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE IN MISERY

We ask the international community to join us in a call for a FREE AND JUST BORDER!

· A just BORDER that permits the free movement of people and not just goods and capital;
· A border based on equality, trust, solidarity, and friendship;
· A border that eliminates racist practices and violent persecution of people who cross the border;
Removal of the failed border enforcement policies known as Operation Gatekeeper, Hold the Line, Rio Grande and Safeguard.
A BORDER that respects the sovereign and spiritual right of indigenous people
A BORDER that protects the flora and fauna and natural resources

The bi-national border corridors build bridges between México and US border social movements.

We call upon the governments of both México and United States to make real effort to meet the following demands:

• Bi-national environmental and economic justice.

Up to now the political class of both countries have not responded satisfactorily to the needs of the people that they represent, putting their own interests or those of their governments first, completely forgetting of the well being of the people. They should be creating the most optimal conditions for the development of both countries, and of their people.

• We demand a program that includes Labor Rights and the legalization of migrant workers.

The “Bracero” program that Presidents Bush and Fox promote is nothing more than a way for US corporations to get cheap labor, further exploit workers, and for Fox to hide the serious unemployment problem that exists in the border region. We call on both administrations to guarantee the rights of workers to obtain sustainable wages and safe working conditions in both countries.

• Recognize the contribution that migrants have made to the United States and México economies and reward them economically for their work.

The governments of both México and the U.S. must assure that compensation is given for the pensions stolen from workers of previous programs and immediately return them to their legal owners.

• End the border enforcement policies known as Operations Gatekeeper, Hold
the Line, Rio Grande, and Safeguard.

We need a peaceful and unified border, not one divided by fear and distrust. Immigration policies in place today have led to the deaths of thousands of migrants in the rivers, deserts, and at the hands of border enforcement officials. These policies must be terminated. Human rights must be protected.

• Guarantee the protection of human and civil rights for everybody.

Human rights should be respected for all people regardless of nationality. This includes the right to seek employment and travel safely across borders without fear of persecution. We call on the United States and México to honor the guidelines set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and put an end to this racism.

• Labor rights for all workers to unite and organize on both sides of the U.S./México
border.

Labor rights are constantly violated on both sides of the United States and México borders. Intense repression against established and independent labor movements, and leaders and the use of child labor has led to the economic and social deterioration of our communities. We now experience high levels of poverty, unemployment and violence.

• The right to a living and sustainable (constitutional, as stated in Mexican Constitution) wage on both the United States and Mexican sides of the border.

While a few enjoy the riches from the labor of others, wide-spread poverty and unemployment plague the border region. A just and livable wage will stimulate local economies and this will assure that the needs of our families are satisfied.

• We demand healthy and sustainable communities along the United States/México
border.

The majority of families live in poverty and without health care. Infant mortality rates are high and children are born with birth defects. There is a significant rise in tuberculosis, polio, typhoid, dengue fever, and diabetes, among others. We demand that our governments make a concerted effort to protect our communities from preventable diseases, environmental toxins, by taking preventative action now.

• The establishment of a broad permanent legalization program for migrants of all
nationalities and their families in the United States.

The illegal conditions of migrant workers forces them to live in inhumane conditions, and be paid extremely low wages, even though they pay taxes and contributions without receiving any social services. Migrant workers also work the worst and most dangerous jobs while at the same time, they face persecution, jail or deportation.

We demand that the United States approve comprehensive and just legislation that reinforces the protection of workers, safeguards their rights, regulates the flow of legal immigrants through the reform of the temporary worker systems, and legalizes these courageous workers. Legislation such as this is critical for the United States, and it should be approved and implemented immediately.

• Respect for women’s rights and an end to violence against women in both countries. We especially call upon the Mexican government to put
an end to violence, murders and disappearances of women in Ciudad Juarez, and Chihuahua, Mexico.

We demand justice for the killing of women workers in Ciudad, Juarez and Chihuahua, many of whom were workers in the maquila industry. Serious, scientific and professional investigations should be carried out about these murders. They must result in the arrest of the guilty parties, and satisfy the demands of the affected families. Up to this date, the governments and CEO’s have not suficiently carried out these demands, and the murders continue.

• Elimination of neo-liberal projects, such as FTAA (Free Trade Areas of the Americas), NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), the Puebla-Panama
Plan, and Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which perpetuate the
exploitation of workers, mainly women and children, indigenous communities, and poor communities of color in the hemisphere.

We are opposed to the neo-liberal projects and the actual negotiations of the FTAA, CAFTA, NAFTA and the Puebla-Panama Plan. Globalization under the neo-liberal plan has ransacked our economies, local markets and have resulted in the bankruptcy of small farmers and businesses. Neo-liberalism, such as NAFTA, have displaced thousands of people, rural communities and indigenous peoples.

• Implementation of economic policies that will effectively resolve problems of
displacement, unemployment, and migration of poor communities.

Millions of jobs have been lost in the border zone, to address this economic policies should be built from the ground up, with broad community participation that results in local development, guarantees workers rights, protects public health and the environment. Trade policies should be established through an extensive process of community & worker participation, and should guarantee job security, a community with sustainable development and a just livelihood for its inhabitants. We demand an “open door”, “free border” policy for the people not only for products, as it presently exists under NAFTA. We demand free passage for the people of both sides of the border, with the guarantee to pass freely, without the need of a visa and without having to pay.
• Recognition of the free movement of indigenous peoples to travel through the borders. We demand respect for the autonomy of indigenous peoples, their collective
land and sovereignty.

We demand the freedom of indigenous people to travel freely across the borders of México and United States without fear of harassment and persecution from both governments. Indigenous governors from different tribes are being restricted from their right to free movement, to celebrate their ceremonies in the north of México and the south of the United States which is their own land, because of the political border that has been imposed on them. They face harassment from government agencies on both sides.

• Dignity for all agricultural workers, including farm workers and small farmers.

Farmers and farmworkers demand water for their crops, and support from both governments to produce their crops. Bi-national policies in the agricultural industries have ruined agriculture along the border causing widespread unemployment among farm workers. Farm workers are among the lowest paid and they live and work in inhumane conditions. They should be justly paid and protected under labor laws of both countries. Trade agreements should not eliminate government subsidies that help support small farmers. Collective farms and cooperatives have been under attack by changes to national laws and neo-liberal projects. The rights of collectives and cooperatives should be protected.

• Legislation to assure the sustainability of small organic farmers.

Farmers in the border region who produce safe organic foods are forced into unfair competition with agribusiness through trade agreements like NAFTA. Foods that are free from pesticides and herbicides should be encouraged and protected.

• We demand a stop to genetically modified agricultural products and intellectual property.

We demand an immediate stop to the genetically modified products, as well as the immoral
collection, storage and intellectual appropriation of natural seeds, herbs, and species for corporate profit.

• A resounding “no” to the installation of gas and thermoelectric enterprises
in México that only service the U.S..

The high ecology cost by damaging the Mexican flower and fauna where there are species unique to this area is without any benefit for the border communities and is unacceptable. Without mentioning the high risk to the communities where the projects of enterprises like Chevron, Texaco, Sempra Energy, Shell, El Paso Oil, and others are located.

• Guaranteed rights to equal education for all.

Respect the right to an education and access to that education. The US and México should practice a ‘free border’ policy for education so that students are treated as residents rather than foreign students in both countries.

• Demand that U.S. ratifies the International Convention on the Protection of the
Human Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Up to the present, neither the United States nor México have ratified the International Convention on the Protection of Human Rights of all migrant workers and their families. We should remedy this immediately, and the protection of all migrants should be guaranteed. Migration is a basic, natural human condition, that has happened since time immemorial.

• Oppose Patriot Act I, the Patriot Act II, the CLEAR Act, and the REAL ID Act.

Just six weeks after the September 11 attacks, a panicked Congress passed the "USA Patriot Act," an overnight revision of the nation's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government's authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight, public accountability, and the ability to challenge government searches in court.

Many of these act's provisions have nothing to do with terrorism. Groups doing human rights work on the US/ México border can be accused of terrorism. People can be detained for no apparent reason and incarcerated for an indefinite period of time with out due process or in other words, any charges, access to their lawyers, family or any contact whatsoever. Under national security the US is mounting more troops along the US/Mexico border which has increased the loss of life of migrants in desolate areas.

• Eliminate walls and demilitarize the U.S./México borders.

Border walls must be torn down! A series of border walls have been constructed on the United States and México borders that border residents detest. People want the border walls down, which are part of a fascist policy.

Border walls have been constructed at:
• San Diego, California and Tijuana, Baja California
• Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora
• El Paso, Texas and Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua
• Naco, Azizona and Sonora, México
• Mexicali, México and Calexio California
• Sunland Park, New México and Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua

Projected Walls:
• Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila
• Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas
• Plans exist to seal off 75% of the Arizona / Sonora Border

• No to the privatization of the water supply from the municipal systems, as well as to
ensure the quality and quantity of this water.

We oppose the fact that under NAFTA, and with the complicity of NADBank, drinking water systems have been privatized. Water sustains life and belongs to everyone. A very small group of people should’nt gain financially from something that is by nature collectively owned by all of humanity.

• We support the peoples’ demands for a bi-national agreement for the complete
restoration of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande River.

Along with this, we demand punishment and fines to formal and informal polluters, including : the maquila industry; high technology industry; cattle industry ; mine industry; nuclear industry; military agencies and the municipalities.

• No to the privatization of utilities and yes to the search for alternatives to non renewable energy.

We demand that energy be developed with renewable materials that puts an end to the use of carbon base energy (not renewable), that all of the people have access, and that the energy production and distribution is not privatized.

· We support the Arizona Boycott and the “Human Dignity Campaign” called for by Arizona communities in response to the anti-immigrant and divisive atmosphere

Arizona immigrants, community members and grassroots organizations call on al people of conscience in Arizona, the U.S. and the world to join in an international boycott of Arizona to demonstrate outrage at the horrendous attacks on immigrants and communities of color that have surged across the state. Proposition 200 and the 22+ shameful anti-immigrant bills in the Arizona state legislature must be abolished. Until these laws and other hateful border policies are rescinded, we commit ourselves to opposing state-sanctioned racism by boycotting Arizona businesses.

Opposition to any and all vigilante activity occurring in the US/Mexico border region

Racist vigilante activities such as those carried out by the Minutemen Project, American Border Patrol, Civil Homeland Defense, Ranch Rescue, and White Revolution, among others, is unacceptable in our communities and we will not tolerate it. We demand investigations and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law of any individuals or organizations engaged in vigilante or anti-immigrant behavior.

US vows to stop illegal migrants =BBC 11-03-05

2005-11-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

US vows to stop illegal migrants

The US has vowed to stop every single illegal immigrant entering the country, by recruiting 1,000 extra agents and increasing the use of unmanned drones.

"Our goal is to gain control of our borders," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

More than a million Mexicans are arrested every year as they try to enter the US to look for work. Experts said the migration trend would continue because of the huge wage gap between the US and Mexico. But Mr Chertoff insisted that once would-be immigrants learnt there was a high likelihood of being caught and sent home, the numbers trying to enter the US would fall.

"I define control to mean that we will have an extremely high probability of detecting, responding to and interdicting illegal crossings of our borders," he said.

Strained relations

In August, the civilian group Minuteman Civil Defence Corps angered immigrant rights advocates by starting to conduct its own border patrols. Supporters of the Minuteman Project said they wanted to highlight what they saw as the federal government's failure to tackle the immigration issue. The group's activities has strained relations between the US and Mexico.

Washington accuses its southern neighbour of not doing enough to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from across Latin America into the US, while Mexican officials condemn vigilante attacks near the border.

President George W Bush has so far delayed the implementation of plans announced in 2004 for a guest-worker scheme which would legalise the presence of immigrants.

About 10 million of Mexicans live in the US and more than four million are said to stay illegally.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4402914.stmPublished: 2005/11/03 13:06:37 GMT© BBC MMV

Related Website= Dept. of Homeland Security ~
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/index.jsp

Noviembre 3 2005 ~ Blog from Peta de Aztlan

2005-11-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

Noviembre 3, 2005 ~ Blog from Peta de Aztlan
Venceremos Companeros!
http://stopminitmen.blogspot.com/

We all need to learn how to better utilize the power of the Internet in order to bring about more education power to the people by sharing vital information, our experiences and what knowledge we can to help advance our Liberation Movement for democracy, justice and liberty for all!

One key way to do this is in the conscious concentration on the coordination of our communications. How can we reach the most people in the least amount of time with our Messages?

Many of us have work to do in different areas of our lives so time is key and time management is important for us to have on a day-to-day basis. Let us not waste time!

Plus, as the Minutemen Watch Yahoo Group Description hints at:

We should avoid any mention of inciting any unlawful act, any type of violence or threats of violence; instead we should focus on community education, reports on current events and how we can work together on specific plans, projects and programs. Action makes the battle front, not just radical rhetoric!

Plus, we should use that often-rare quality called common sense and beware of open discussions about specific tactics over the Internet that can be seen by all ~ friend or foe! We are not alone!

All vital social issues are interconnected. The advocacy and struggle for the rights of immigrants is part of the general struggle for humane rights for all people upon Mother Earth.

For example, Fuhrer Bush is on a tour of Latin America and other current events should be taken into consideration, especially because social circumstances always change in time, space and terrain.

Related Links for further research ~

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minutemenwatch/message/165
From: El Mensajero <mudpmensajero@...>
Date: Tue Nov 1, 2005 11:54 am
Subject: Take a Stance against the Border Police Initiative:
Support Human Rights in Escondido!

Join Up! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minutemenwatch/
Post message: minutemenwatch@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: minutemenwatch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/message/33808
Date: Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:01 am
Subject: Re: OCT29: Email & Photos ~
The People Confront Racist Minutemen in Sacramento
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/mod/comments/update/index.php

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/message/33789
Date: Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:36 am
Subject: Arizona Showdown= High-powered firearms, militia maneuvers and racism at the Minuteman
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=557&printable=1

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/message/33788
Date: Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:24 am
Subject: Immigration Watch for Oct. 25, 2005 + Links to Articles
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=28

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/message/33787
Date: Sun Oct 30, 2005 9:54 am
Subject: Sacra Bee: Comments On Immigration Clash at Capitol

Anti-Racist Groups Hold Counter-Protest Opposing Minuteman Rally at Capitol = Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005 at 12:58 AM
By Brother Gary Zimmerman
Email: glzimm@comcast.net
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/1721346.php

Southern Poverty Law Center ~
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=28

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13790544p-14632246c.html
Immigration clash at Capitol
Three arrested as demonstrators counter Minuteman Corps rally
By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, October 30, 2005

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/message/33732
Date: Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:59 pm
Subject: Echo: Minuteman Vigilante Information = October 24, 2005

Fight Back Against Amerikan Fascism!
Peter S. Lopez {aka Peta} ~ Field Coordinator
Sacramento, Califas, USA
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumaneRightsAgenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-EARTH-NEWS/
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/sacranative
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

civillib@cwnet.com wrote:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Contact: Cres Vellucci 916.996.9170
ATTN: News Desk

Jailed 5 days without a hearing, youngimmigrant rights activist set to go beforejudge Thursday morning, his attorney says

SACRAMENTO – A young immigrants rights activist – who has spent nearly a week in jail without an opportunity for a hearing, a right usually accorded prisoners within 48 hours of arrest – will finally go before a judge Thursday morning at about 8:30 a.m. (Dept. 63, Main Jail, 615 I St.)

Earlier this week the District Attorney's office made – and was granted – an unusual request to delay a bail hearing for Joshua Ramirez, who was arrested at a protest against vigilante border "Minutemen" last Saturday at the State Capitol.

Ramirez, 19, of Santa Cruz, is now being charged with three felony counts, including battery on a Sacramento city police officer, a California Highway Patrol officer and resisting arrest.

"We are hopeful this young man will be released Thursday," said Jeff Kravitz, a Sacramento civil rights attorney and law school professor who is representing Ramirez.

Observers and witnesses of the demonstration of about 600 protesters – many from San Francisco and the Central Valley – said those arrested were physically abused by police, including one person arrested for just stepping off the crowded sidewalk into the gutter.

Demonstrators were protesting the rally by the "Minuteman Project", a vigilante citizen group using weapons to harass and even "arrest" immigrants along the Mexican border.The project, although it involves illegal activity, has received the endorsement of the governor.

"We're very concerned this activist is being singled out for over-the-top charges, high bail and this motion to postpone his release largely because he is Latino and opposed to the same vigilante project the governor supports," said Cres Vellucci, spokesperson for the Mexican American Political Association, the oldest Latino political organization in the state.

-30--.-

Indigenous peoples assembly, otro noticias, FYI?

2005-11-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

More than 300 million strong, the world's indigenous peoples are beginning to make themselves heard, in international arenas like the new United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and at the national level, where their growing mobilisation is translating into political muscle. Through its local writers, IPS endeavours to transmit these indigenous voices and untangle their issues for a global audience.===================================================================BRAZIL: People's Assembly Builds Participatory Democracy Mario OsavaRIO DE JANEIRO - People's assemblies should be held all around Brazil, in every social context, in order to strengthen democracy and organise coordinated action, concluded the peasant farmers, indigenous people, unemployed workers and other marginalised sectors at the "Mutirao for a New Brazil"("Mutirao" means working together as a group). http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30835***VENEZUELA: Indigenous People Protest Coal Mining Humberto MárquezCARACAS - Recent protests by indigenous people in Venezuela defending their land and the environment from coal mining show that not all is rosy in their relations with the government of Hugo Chávez, although they recognise that no president has ever done so much for the country's 35 native ethnic groups. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30783***MALAYSIA: Outcry Grows Against Pro-Rich Budget Anil NettoPENANG - Grassroots activists in Malaysia -- indigenous communities, factory employees, plantation workers, student activists, urban pioneers, and farmers -- are protesting against the government’s pro-business budgetary policies that they say have sidelined issues of concern to low-income Malaysians. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30701***MEXICO: Double Standards in Treatment of Hurricane Victims Diego CevallosMEXICO CITY - Most signs of the damages caused by Hurricane Wilma in Mexico's Caribbean resort of Cancún will have been wiped away before the Christmas holidays. But for those left homeless by Hurricane Stan in the nearby impoverished and heavily indigenous state of Chiapas, recovery is a distant goal. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30819***CANADA: MPs Call for Tougher Rules on Overseas Mines Paul WeinbergTORONTO - A call by members of Canada's parliament for legally binding measures to govern the behaviour of Canadian mining companies around the world, and specifically to investigate the activities affecting indigenous peoples in the Philippines, has been turned down flat by the Canadian government's foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30735***Giving Cassava Its Due Mario OsavaRIO DE JANEIRO - Cassava is the main source of calories for 500 million people around the world, but it has never been accorded the technological or culinary attention merited by its nutritional importance, likely because it is a crop grown and eaten by the poor. Cassava was a dietary staple of the Brazil's indigenous peoples long before the arrival of Europeans.http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30816***ENVIRONMENT-KENYA: Amboseli at a Crossroads Joyce MulamaNAIROBI - It's a move which some say has created a "disaster in waiting". However, Kenya's government is refusing to alter its decision to downgrade Amboseli, a globally-renowned national park, to game reserve status. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30784***Venezuela Declares Itself Illiteracy-Free Humberto MárquezCARACAS - Venezuela declared itself an "illiteracy-free territory", announcing that some 1.5 million adults have learned to read and write in the past two years, and that less than two percent of the population of 26 million remains illiterate. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30823 **************************************************STAY INFORMED! IPS publishes several free weekly newsletters to keep you informed on the issues you care about. 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Its clients include more than 3,000 media organizations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users.IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.===================================================================Visit Inter Press Service at http://www.ipsnews.net====================================================================Unsubscribe: http://indigenousips.b.tep1.com/f/unsub.html/aaaq3068et5lum3ddht5qz6hpvhpfhdlon9gdan9n9xj84Update Your Profile: http://indigenousips.b.tep1.com/f/?a84Mij.ciLnuy.Y3VpYm9uConfirm Your Subscription: http://indigenousips.b.tep1.com/f/?a84Mij.ciLnuy.Y3VpYm9u.cDelivered by Topica: http://www.topica.com/?p=T3FOOTER

some thoughts about CHP/SacPD performance Oct 29

2005-11-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't really see the start of any of the "incidents" Saturday that led to the arrests, but I did observe certain actions and behavior on the part of Law Enforcement I think worthy of comment, maybe a little discussion?

I have to confess I also observed certain actions and conduct on the part of a small minority of my fellow anti-MM protesters which didn't particularly impress me. Howver: to me, the instinct to defy "authority" is healthy & shows promise, much more so than the instinct to "go along & get along".

But that's another can of worms, right now I'm concerned about "effective performance to protect public safety and Freedom of Speech".

I believe the CHP as well as the city police dept. fell short of optimum professional standards; that they failed to observe basic, traditional Crowd Control procedures; several times took a wrongheaded "less than professional approach" to fullfilling their responsibilities; and made several decisions which in hindsight are revealed as just plain wrong.

I'm going to begin with the point at which I came around the North end of the Capitol and had a full view of the street end of the concrete walk leading down from the West Steps to the sidewalk, which the leading elements of the "second march" had just before reached coming from the North.

During the first, "scheduled" march, I wore a bunch of buttons, carried posters, also my agogo bell (to keep myself amused etc:). My recollection of that march is too confused to try to say anything about any "incidents"; I don't recall anything specific that I can place in that time frame.

But when I noticed the large contingent break away from the official Rally near the Cactus Garden, I put away the buttons and got out my little "Clark Kent" notebook, in order to be able to take notes, acting as a "de facto" legal observer.

So as I rounded the north end of the bldg and saw a rush of horses, uniformed officers and a few "minuteman" types toward the sidewalk directly west of the West Steps, I started a timeline, noting in my little book every thing with in my field of view which seemingly could be in any way significant, beginning at 12:08 PM, with the last notation at 12:35, at which time things seemed to have calmed down. The sun had at last emerged and I was uncomfortably warm, so I headed back to the Rally site and my parking meter, intending to return to " the action" ASAP. For various important reasons I never made it, but that's another story:)

Anyway, what I observed in that half hour has left me with two main criticisms of the CHP/SacPD handling of the situation. First, what was the point of the horses being there? Second, normal Picket Line guidelines weren't followed in the handling of the picketers on the Tenth St on east side sidewalk, between N and L Streets, with the focus even with the Capitol Ave curved roadways in front of the Court & Library bldg.

Normally, when a group is exercising its right to picket, the first rule is Don't Block The Sidewalk, which in practice translates to A) Keep Moving; B) maintain an interval of about six feet between picketers.The often selectively enforced third rule is Don't Attach Picket Signs To Sticks Big Enough To Serve As A Weapon; I saw several sticks which could have been v. handy if a melee had broken out, but since it never became an issue, I'm not going to worry about it.

For some reason, the "Authorities" (sic) decided they had to confine the Picket Line to a small fraction of the two blocks between N & L. They established "termini", turn-around points, where the marchers were compelled to reverse direction. There being too many picketers for the space available with in those arbitrary limits, there was no chance for anything resembling a six foot space between marchers; people were instead crammed together to a degree that it was hard to avoid jostling or stepping on each other.

----------------------------->
I need to take a break, so I'm going to stop here for now and continue this in the morning.

DE

Dias de los Muertos: Blood on the Border By JOHN ROSS

2005-11-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

November 1, 2005
Blood on the Border
Days of the Dead
By JOHN ROSS
It is the season of the Dead in Mexico. On the Dias de los Muertos (November 1-2), the people will remember their "difuntos" (dead) by building altars to honor their passing and travel out to the graveyards to clean up their tombs, bringing with them the cempaxeutl (marigold) flowers, a tub of turkey mole, the dead person's favorite booze and cigarettes and, of course, lively music so that the "calacas" (the skeletons or "calaveras") will rise up and dance.
This year, the party will be enlivened by 453 fresh "muertos" just arrived from the "Other Side" (the U.S.) 2005 has been an all-time record year for the number of reported Mexican and Central American migrant deaths along the 3000-kilometer border
The tally of migrant deaths is coldly calculated to fit into each fiscal year the figures are used to justify and project budget requests for what used to be called the U.S. Border Patrol and is now the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) division of the Department of Homeland Security. Regardless of the name changes, the agency will always be the "Migra" to millions of migrant workers.
From October 1st 2004 through September 30th 2005, 454 Mexican and Central American migrant workers died trying to get across the U.S. border, according to a just-released ICE count for the past fiscal year. How this figure is actually determined is a major mystery to Claudia Smith, director of the California Rural Legal Assistance advocacy program for migrant workers, who is convinced that many deaths simply escape the Migra's attention. The fiscal '04-'05 numbers are a significant increase over fiscal '03-'04 when 383 migrants perished. In both years, 60% of the death toll was taken in the merciless Arizona desert west of Yuma where hundreds fry each summer under the watchful eye of the ICE. 22 migrants died in the first three weeks of July alone.
Since 1995, when the Border Patrol enhanced operations in San Diego ("Operation Gatekeeper") and El Paso ("Operation Hold The Line"), the most popular crossings, it has been stated U.S. policy to up the risks of illegal immigration by driving the migrants to the most dangerous crossings along the border such as Arizona's notorious "corridor of death."
Many of this year's crop of the freshly-dead were guided to their demise by the economic and trade policies of both the Mexican and U.S. governments, particularly in the agricultural sector where the dumping of U.S. corn and other produce in Mexico under the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has forced upwards of 3,000,000 farm families off the land and into the migration stream, according to Agricultural Ministry stats. Since NAFTA was inked in 1992 (it kicked in 1994), nearly 5000 Mexican and Central American workers, many of them dislocated farmers, have lost their lives trying to get across this border to take a job no North American will work. On the bone parade, that's more than died on 9/11.
The Dead die in the surf trying to swim into San Diego. They drowned in the All-America Canal just outside of Mexicali and in the big muddy river that Mexico calls the Rio Bravo and the U.S. the Rio Grande. The Dead die bitten by rattlesnakes trying to get through south Texas and battered by fast-moving cars on busy border freeways. The Dead suffocate to death in locked truck trailers and boxcars stuck on sidings. The Dead die in smash-ups after high-speed chases with the Migra or else are shot down when they try to run. The Dead are gunned down by Arizona ranchers who advertise "human safaris". The Dead die beaten with baseball bats by border thieves or gangs of "polleros" (people smugglers) because they can't pay their fee. They die frozen stiff as a log up in the Rumarosa Mountains buried under the snow, But most of all, the Dead die down there in the scorching desert below to which the Migra has herded them in order to up "the risks of illegal immigration". Sometimes all you find are bleached bones. Sometimes just torn clothes.
Many more of the migrants make it across the border than die in the passage and they spread out into every nook and cranny of the American Dream 7,000,000 undocumented workers at last count. But just like their comrades who ate it on the border, they die up there too. Some, like six family members from Zacatecas murdered in Georgia this October for the remittance money they were about to send home, are victims of American violence. Some just had bad luck like the two young Tzeltal boys from Ocosingo in the Zapatista zone who came home this month to Chiapas in cardboard caskets from New Orleans where Katrina cut them down.
Up there, the Dead die in industrial accidents, from sleeping out in the cold, from heart attacks or just a broken heart for the country they've been forced to leave behind. Mexico's 47 U.S. consulates processed 10,000 request4s last fiscal year to send the Dead back home.
Getting the Dead home to Mexico is a tricky business. Away from the border, family and friends pay the cost of the coffin and the transport. On the border, because the Dead there are so often unaccompanied, the consulates will supply a coffin (often made of cardboard) and the airfreight - but because both come out of meager budgets, the bureaucrats shop for the best bargains. Aeromexico, the low bidder, is the designated carrier to get the Dead home.
The designation seems one of life's bitter ironies to Jorge Santibanez, director of the College of the Northern Border think tank in Tijuana. Aeromexico flies thousands of migrant workers into Hermosillo, Sonora each year, the jumping off point for the Arizona desert where so many of them will die.
Now Aeromexico has won a contract from Homeland Security to fly live indocumentados who have accepted voluntary departure free of charge from Tucson to Guadalajara and Mexico City. Santibanez's mordant if modest proposal made with a Day of the Deadish twist: since the undocumented never have a lot of suitcases, how about letting them bring the coffins of their dead brothers and sisters on board as part of their luggage?
But for 400 or so defunct indocumentados, there will be no free flight home to celebrate los Dias de los Muertos with their relatives and "cuates" (friends.) Laid out in a muddy potter's field behind the town cemetery in Holtville California, 120 miles east of San Diego and halfway to Yuma Arizona the deadliest span along the dividing line - they comprise the largest congregation of unidentified dead on the border.
Buried beneath rough hewn markers and white wooden crosses donated by a local migrants coalition that read "No Olvidado" ("Not Forgotten"), the graves of the children perhaps decorated with a decaying stuffed animal, the souls of these Juan and Juana Does are suspended in exile. They have, in a sense, at last become permanent residents.
About a third of the 3500 migrant workers who have died during 10 years of Operation Gatekeeper have never been identified, reports Claudia Smith many may be Central Americans who tend to carry no identification because they have to transit Mexico and it is better to blend in there. Smith, who thinks the Migra is fudging the figures, has long advocated link-ups between the 24 county coroners whose jurisdictions extend from San Diego California to Corpus Christi Texas on the Gulf to more accurately identify those who die in the crossing.
Smith's persistence has paid off with the installation by Mexico's Foreign Ministry of a database that will allow the consulates to more accurately match up DNA samples from family members with those who are missing in action on the border.
This Day of the Dead, as has become the ritual, parishioners from St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Holtville and migrant advocates from San Diego will gather once again in the muddy bone yard where the unidentified migrants molder, with candles and food and song to remember the nameless and perhaps, despite the great distances between Holtville and home, as the party warms up, the calacas will get up and dance.
One more death on the border that may not get listed in the local obituaries this Day of the Dead: Immigration Reform, which died quietly this fall in Mexico City. Both Mexico City and Washington seem to have agreed there is little resonance on this issue in a U.S, Congress which is busily authorizing border walls and denying the undocumented a driver's license. And there is even less down on a local level where the migrants are now denied hospital care in some states and barred from attending public universities and even being charged with trespassing just because they are in the U.S. Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo wants to shut down public libraries that have Spanish reading sections because the undocumented may be reading the books.
In such a malevolent atmosphere, immigration reform is not going to fly, admits Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, giving up a six year battle by the government of President Vicente Fox to reach an accord with Washington. "Immigration reform is dead" Derbez told reporters in the Mexican capitol last week, "at least until after 2008." (Reported from California and Mexico City.)
John Ross will be on the road in California for the next month, teaching a seminar on rebel journalism at New College in San Francisco and lecturing about the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign" in the upcoming Mexican presidential elections.

What You're Missing in the Special Expanded Print Edition The War So Far: a Failure Worse Than Vietnamby Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Coalitions, Organizations, getting organized

2005-11-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

A statewide coalition is certainly needed. Among other things, to link up w/ TX & Arizona & other anti-MM orgs in a national coalition.

In Sacramento we need to create an Area-wide coalition, covering Yolo as well as Sac-based orgs. I'd suggest considering the idea of a new Sacramento organization, to draw in individuals who aren't members of any of the established coalition-member organizations?

Also in Sac, there's the matter of Mark Williams & Co/MAF; it seems to me that many Sac activists see the Minutemen as primarily an Immigration issue, while others focus on Mark W. because of his attacks on Antiwar activism, (picketing the Pearcy's home, the art displayed at the Atty Gen bldg, the anti-Cindy "caravan" to Crawford TX); his fascistoid "on-the-air" presence; his central role in creating this potentially v. dangerous "MAF" outfit.

So I wonder whether one org will be sufficient, or whether it might be better to have separate committees? Maybe one more Immigration-focused; another to focus more on our buddy Mark's activities, from the antiracism/anti-fascist-propaganda/anti-imperialist war angle?

Or maybe the process of hammering out a Mission Statement for a united local organization would be valuable enough, educational experience enough, to make it worth investing the time & patience it would take?

Yes? No? You got it, I'm
OUT:)

Stop the Minutemen!

2005-10-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

This Blog is for the use of the organizers of the Oct 29 2005 anti-Minutemen/Mark Williams MAF protest at the CA state Capitol, and everyone concerned about this problem.